Blood Chronicles
by oony
Summary: What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. This is that what if story.
1. Chapter 1

Rating of R.

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards."  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

Beta read by ErikaDominica2790.

Blood Chronicles.

-

The unblinking profile of a small, battered and bloodstained four-year-old girl looked up into shocked eyes everywhere from the front page of the Daily Prophet. Sirius sucked in a sharp breath, willing his silver eyes away from the scarcely moving photograph that reminded him of the real world that he'd be a part of in six short months.

His eyes shied away from the photograph that seemed to be taken straight out of a horror movie only to scan down the article and land on another unsettling snapshot. The backdrop was that of a cloudy night sky that nearly concealed the figure captured in it.

The mysterious shape was unidentifiable. Sirius had to squint his eyes at an impossible degree in order to distinguish the shadowy outline from the background. An icy chill crept down his spine, steeling his breath away, and making his eyes grow large as dinner plates as he drank in the nameless person's rough silhouette and resplendent golden eyes.

"_Hello. Earth to Sirius_." A singsong voice bellowed in his ear.

Sirius jumped and whirled around, smacking James Potter in the face with the unfurled newspaper that he'd been reading not moments before. James stumbled away from his attacker, nearly tripping over his own two feet and settled for glaring at a safe distance.

"Fine," he muttered after blinking twice and regaining his composure, arms crossed defensively across his chest. "Be that way, forget I even asked you if you wanted any toast for breakfast."

James huffed and made a show of stomping to the other side of the table, seating himself none too gracefully opposite his friend and regarding his half eaten oatmeal with the look of a sulking five-year-old. Sirius watched him; sterling eyes a cocktail of amusement and disbelief that his seventeen-year-old companion could still act like a moping child and still have all of his manly dignity intact.

He had just opened his mouth to reply as such when his eyes caught sight of the anonymous stranger with the golden eyes again. His snappy retort died in his throat and his mouth closed slowly. Sirius' full attention returned to the haunting pictures on the front page.

"Si? Are you okay?"

He could distantly register James' voice and shook himself mentally. His gaze snapped up to James' uncertain face, now void of all childish play and grinned mischievously.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just trying to decide whether or not I should hit you with the paper again."

James' eyes widened with mock fear and his gaze shifted to where Sirius' hand was slowly rolling up the newspaper.

"Yeah...Well...Oh, would you look at the time," He cried, jabbing dramatically at his wrist. "It's nine o' clock."

Sirius cocked an eyebrow and continued his slow, steady crease of the paper. "So? What's at nine?"

"You know...Nine o' clock's when I...Leave?"

"Is that supposed to be a question or a statement?"

"Um...A-"

Not even waiting for an answer, the paper came down and landed with a reverberating smack.

"Sirius. Bloody hell, that _hurt_."

-

The rain pounded out a primitive beat. No secure rhythm insured, only the uneven throbbing that sounded as if someone were pouring a cart full of rice on a clay roof. Lightning provided the only light since the angry, billing, black thunder clouds hid the shinning stars and burning half moon from view. Thunder rang throughout the velvety heavens, sending tiny wild life scrambling for shelter.

Glassy, black water puddles rippled as booted feet splashed carelessly off of the beaten path and onto one of their own. It was a long and steep walk through the uncontrollable undergrowth.

The heavily battered door opened silently and the owner of the mud and blood slicked boots crept inside. He shook dirty water droplets from his hair and shrugged his soaked cloak to the floor. The scratchy material tangled around his feet and he'd barley closed the door when he was slammed into it violently.

Hot, rancid breath that smelt heavily of whiskey and rotting meat danced across his sweaty face. Dagger like claws pierced through the thin textile of his clothing, pierced straight through his pale skin to bury themselves deep into the very center of his being.

"Happy to see you too," he growled lowly and struggled to try and free himself from the vice like grip. The brutal grasp tightened until a trickle of blood seeped down the cloth covered length of his arm. A face livid with fury swam into his line of vision. "Get off me Greyb-"

He was silenced by the resounding slap of thick paper against his face.

"You were seen," raged the furious man that held him pinned against the door, waving the paper madly around, spittle and blood flying from his mouth.

He yanked his captive up by his collar so that his feet were off the ground. His victim's gaze remained cool as he snatched the paper and slowly moved his eyes from the angry face before him to the article that covered most of the front page. He scanned the column carefully and then thrust the ink smudged paper back into the other's grimy hand.

"Seen indeed," his voice was calm, camouflaging the deadly undertone. "It's a pity you don't know how to read that well; else you might know what the word _unidentified_ means."

He was silenced again, this time not by a sharp blow, but by the intensity of the gaze that held him more successfully than any death grip ever could.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll shut up right now before I rip your fucking throat out," the rusty voice pulsed against his outer ear shell. He snorted, carefully meeting the cold glare with one of his own.

"Empty threat," the underdog muttered, his gaze wavering slightly before he met his captor's eyes straight on once more. "You're just jealous that I was out for a night of fun and left you here to take care of yourself."

The third time it was an actual strike that cut him off and sent his head snapping violently to the side, productively putting an end to his softly spoken speech. He spat the blood from his mouth and gradually turned to face forward again. A vivid trickle of blood streamed down from the corner of his mouth to his chin.

With mocking calmness he raised his hand and wiped the blood away; his own life fluid mixing with that of others' that had already been spilled on his hands and had etched black beneath his fingernails.

The older of the two men spun away harshly with an unbelievable amount of grace. The newsprint went scattering to the floor and the man with the foul breath pulled his claw like nails along the wall as he paced the perimeter of the small, earthy enclosure.

"That's hardly the point and you know it," he snarled, a distant gleam in his eyes suggested that he wasn't being entirely truthful. Although now free to move, his victim stayed with his back firmly pressed against the rough, wooden door. "We cannot risk you getting caught this far in the game. You're-" He broke off suddenly and clearly intended for the subject of conversation to be officially closed.

The man subdued against the door smirked and pushed himself away. He pulled the sweat and bloodstained tee shirt over his head and cleared his throat. When he spoke next, he had adopted his companion's rusty baritone only it held a whiny quality to it that the original certainly didn't have.

"Far too important and I cannot risk you getting caught," he picked up where the other's train of speech had died and placed his hands on his hips like a scolding mother. "And besides, if you weren't around Remus who else would you expect to cut up my pancakes and tuck me in every night? Not to mention how would I ever be able to dress myself? God forbid I go to the bathroom without you there to hold my hand-"

His breath was stolen from his lungs as the bulky body tackled him to the floor. Thin wrists were captured and held firmly above his head. Unforgiving claws sliced his skin. Remus bit his lip. He'd be dammed if he lost it to the alpha male.

"Where's your respect? I taught you better than that."

Nails that were more like claws and felt like dagger blades cut down his exposed arms. The reward was a gasp of pain; the body beneath him withered in an attempt to escape the smoldering pain racing through his bloodstream.

"You should be grateful to me; I didn't have to take you in. I didn't have to give you this gift."

Sharp canines glided over the vulnerable skin of Remus' throat.

"You should be thanking me..." He trailed off, his lingering voice vibrating against trembling flesh. Without warning he growled, tore though the tender skin, and tugged.

The form beneath him screamed and desperately tried to pitch the destructive body away. He let go with a snap of jaws and supported his weight with his elbows, gazing down with emotionless golden orbs and lapping up the bright blood until the boy's screams faded away into stifled whimpers. Remus braced himself for another assault and tensed instinctively when bloodied teeth traced over his throat again.

Outside the brutal storm raged on, completely oblivious to the tense atmosphere inside the nature made hideaway.

"Please," he pleaded, playing for time, and trying to put a stopper to the tears flowing down his face. "Stop, you're hurting me. Dad..."

Remus' voice trailed away.

Luminous eyes narrowed and lips tainted with blood and jagged after a week's worth of neglect rose deafly. Remus bit his tongue and prayed that he hadn't just spoken what freely ran through his mind. He prayed that he was imagining the murderous glint that shone in the bottomless eyes fixed solely on him.

He'd never been permitted to call his maker by the title of Dad. The last time that Remus had let it slip had been when he was seven. He could still recall the gruesome lesson that had followed that would make sure it would never happen again.

Fenrir Greyback had never been forgiving to those who walked the line when it came to his laws.

The patter of wild, irregular rain thundered the chorus of falling rice. It did its best to muffle the screams from inside the clay walled hideaway. Remus' raw pleads never reached the ears of the people of Hogsmead, no more than two miles out of the dense cover of trees.

- 

Combs with savagely broken teeth were scattered all over the seventh year Gryffindor boys' bathroom. Bottles of shampoo, hair shine, hair grease, and of Merlin's Beard's Magic Hair Flattening Cream (guaranteed to make your hair lie flat for twenty-four hours or your money back) laid haphazardly among the broken combs. Their gooey substances oozed out onto the floor in a rainbow of greens, yellows, blues, and pinks.

James Potter stood in front of the counter top sink, his elbows propped up on the marble surface. His face hidden shamefully in cupped hands. The shower behind him was still dripping with a constant rhythm and a patch of steam had been wiped clean from the mirror in front of him. The words 'James loves Lily' covered every inch of the mirror that had not been wiped clean in order for him to see his highly dismal profile.

He either could not hear or chose to ignore the click of the bathroom door that announced that he was no longer alone.

"James, what are you-" Three footsteps sounded, but the fourth never came.

Sirius' voice broke off when his footing crossed with a puddle of yellow gel that sent him slipping for stable balance.

After a short battle with the slippery tile, Sirius fell on his back. With a groan, the aggravated teen pushed himself up and carefully made his way over to James, who still hadn't looked up from his stationed position. After another nearly fatal fall, credit to the green concoction spilled over a wide range of the floor, Sirius finally straightened up and stood beside a still silent James.

"Um...Jim?" Sirius prodded his shoulder experimentally with a forefinger. "Can you hear me?"

"Ifantmymongyblack."

"Translation, por favor?" He sighed dryly.

James separated his head form his gunk smeared palms shortly.

"I want my money back." He resumed his stance of silence.

"In order to _get_ money back you need to actually _give_ it to begin with."

James groaned and stretched his hand out blindly, his fingers skating clumsily and heavily over the counter top until they felt out a fat, white jar whose powder blue lid rolled and fell with a clatter to the floor. He thrust the jar into Sirius' face and then retired back to his hands. Silver eyes observed the jar for a second from all angles before he set it back down with a faint click as the jar met the marble surface.

"Still not following."

James groaned again and pointed an accusing finger in the general direction of the fat, white jar.

"Right, I got that much."

James gave a thumbs up and pointed to his head where a continuous war was being fought between James' unruly, rebellious hair and the pink gel in the stout, white jar.

"Oh," Sirius said dramatically, not as if he'd figured out his friend's hair problem but the very answer to life itself. "I...Still don't get it..."

James' hands went into overdrive as he frantically pointed to the jar of Merlin's Beard's Magic Hair Flattening Cream, to his head, to the mirror, and then to just about everywhere else in between. In fear of getting hit in the face, Sirius jumped away and watched from a distance as James pointed at all sorts of random and various things. His brow furrowed with concentration as he tired to decipher the mystery that was James' apparent new language.

Then, after only a minute more, realization dawned on him.

"_Oh_," Sirius said again. As he spoke James froze mid-point toward the shower door and looked up at him. "Well, James, you could have just told me that the alien chickens stole your mother's bra in order to perform some evil clown ritual in _English_, honestly. I thought you had something important to say...My bad."

Sirius started toward the door and James didn't say anything. Slowly, he lowered his face back into his hands and cursed the deities for giving him such God awful hair.

"By the way," Sirius' voice drifted in from the dorm that was adjacent to the disastrous bathroom in need of some major cleaning attention. "Lily's waiting downstairs and she said if you don't hurry up that she's leaving for Hogsmead without you."

Casual footfalls marked his exit and James groaned once more and shook his head.

He really needed to find some new friends.

-

He strolled casually down the quiet cobblestone road that served as the main street in Hogsmead. His eyes scanned the small groups of socializing wizards and witches that were clustered together outside of the brightly lit display windows of various shops for the perfect victim.

Remus sighed and made his way over to a small group of witches gathered together in front of one of the clothing shops. For a while he stayed a fair distance from them, pretending to take an interest in the new styles of robes in the warmly lit, wide window while he waited for the perfect moment.

The perfect moment came not nearly three minutes later when a man passed by who they all turned to trade salutations with. Perfect. He moved like the water in a summer stream, sailing effortless past the five of them and into a back alley a few stores down. Remus double checked over his shoulder before he deemed it safe and slipped three small leather bags that were tied tightly with string at the mouth out from their hiding spot up his sleeve.

With a snort, he emptied their combined amounts into his palm. When all was weighed and accounted for he slipped the money into his own pouch and discarded the three empty money bags.

Like taking candy from a baby.

It was only natural that he'd be good at it by now. Seeing how Remus had had plenty of practice since he was six-years-old. And now, just passing the mark of his seventeenth birthday, he'd be damned that, if after eleven years of practice and strategy, he'd be caught. It was simply unheard of.

Suddenly Remus fought the urge to wince as a searing, blazing hot pain shot through his neck and shoulder. He opted to tie his scarf more tightly and securely around his damaged skin instead. He ignored the scratch of uncaring cloth against raw skin and juggled his half full money bag between his bare hands, weighing not only the bag but also his options.

He'd put in a good days work and had more than enough gold in his pocket to show for his worthiness. Then Greyback's words came back to haunt him like a slap in the face.

Remus remembered the warning to return with a pouch fit to burst and that if he didn't he could count himself in for another lesson. Completely free of charge. His fingers drifted absentmindedly to his healing neck and the visible reminders he knew he still bore.

Golden eyes traveled down to his hand and the bag it held. After a visual count he decided that he already had half of what was needed in order to go home without the fear of another lesson hanging over him like a thunder cloud. He could finish the job with one last good catch. Now all he needed to do was find the right target.

He re-hid his own money bag. Remus wasn't fool enough to believe that he was the only pickpocket around on a lazy Wednesday afternoon, and he soon found himself walking once more down the main cobblestone street. The witches', whose money now mixed with many other of his victims', chatted care freely. They were still unsuspecting that they'd just lost their weeks pay to feed their families. This time he was in pursuit of much bigger game instead of petty weekly pay.

Let the hunt begin.

-

"I swear to God, Black, you're worse than a girl!"

"Jim, I don't think any thing's worse than a girl on a shopping spree."

"Yeah, well they may have just found some tough competition," James muttered and slumped back in the navy blue fabric chair that he'd occupied for the past twenty minutes.

Sirius' brow creased as he compared two well designed winter heavy cloaks to his frame in front of the wall length mirror of Twilfitt and Tattings in Hogsmead.

"Well, it's not my fault that some of us don't care if we look like shit or not."

For a minute all was quiet except for the faithful ticking of the wall mounted clock just slightly to the right of James' head.

"Hey," James started slowly. "I don't look like shit."

The other raven haired boy snorted.

"I never said you did."

Sirius at last decided on a slim cut cloak that was dark in color and expensive on the price tag. He laid it down none to carefully on the counter top and rested his weight against the solid surface as the curly, red haired witch behind the register rang up the price. Her eyes grew wide when she saw the final amount and timidly told him it. Sirius shrugged, dug around in his pocket, and then dumped out a mound of gold on the counter.

When his new purchase was paid for and wrapped away safely in a bag, he and James exited the shop. Sirius' money bag was none the lighter.

Outside, golden eyes grew larger by each passing second. Remus moved away from the window of Twilfitt and Tattings and watched as the two boys talked and laughed until they disappeared into the Three Broomsticks. A slow, sly smile started to tug at the corners of his mouth.

"Perfect…Simply _perfect_…"

-


	2. Chapter 2

Rating of R.

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards."  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

Beta read by ErikaDominica2790.

Blood Chronicles.

-

The Three Broomsticks was as noisy and crowded as ever. Most of Hogwarts' students seemed to be taking advantage of the fair, late January weather and four o'clock in the afternoon seemed like a good time for them all to crowd into the pub at once to warm their hands and faces.

Remus entered the pub and pulled his coat more tightly around his body. He suddenly felt very exposed and vulnerable. The inward swinging door snapped shut, leaving the skeletal-like trees with their bare branches behind him.

Inside the noise was almost to the point where it was unbearable. Drunken laughter, shouted orders, and the scrape of chair legs clawing against the floor made it almost impossible for him to focus on locating his wealthy prey.

He moved slowly among the room, radiant eyes darting left and right to find the two black haired boys. When he finally found them, a smirk curved his lips.

The two friends were in the core of a large crowd that was easily the biggest and the loudest one in the whole of the Three Broomsticks. He wrapped his scarf more firmly around his neck and the wound it bore. Remus ambled toward a table directly behind theirs, quietly and unseen.

He always liked a challenge.

-

"'Nother round!" An insistent and booming voice rang throughout the room; it could easily be heard over all the other cacophony.

There was a roar of agreement before a slightly disheveled and flustered Madam Rosmerta hurried over with a magically balanced, round tray in hand that was toppling with mugs, all of which were full to the rim.

"Here you are," she said breathlessly, swatting wandering hands away and clearing a spot in the center of the three tables that had been pushed together to form a one large makeshift table with her wand so that she could set the tray down.

Madam Rosmerta had barely set her burden down when a gaggle of hands all tried to grab for another drink at the same time. She stumbled backwards, paused, and then turned hastily on her high heeled feet to attend to the other customers' orders. When the distracted waitress turned she slammed into something solid.

Both her and the person she'd collided with tumbled to the floor in a tangle of limbs and it was a second before they could right themselves and regain their footing. She turned again, tucking a lose strand of hair behind her ear, and began to apologize rapidly.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there. Here, allow me to-"

"No." His voice was quiet, but it silenced her as efficiently as if it had been yelled. "I'll help myself, thank you."

There was a cold politeness to his tone that made her curious. She watched him walk away and sit at a lonely booth in the corner behind the obnoxious group of Hogwarts' students. A shout for another sherry brought her back to reality and she hurried back into the crowded heart of the Three Broomsticks.

- 

"Fucking bitch," Remus muttered, glancing down at his homely clothes to make sure the waitress hadn't spilled anything on him. "For every drop of alcohol, I swear there'll be a drop of blood in exchange," he said quietly and called over another attendant.

"Dragonspit, rocks," he snapped, the girl jumped slightly and then rushed away to fill his order.

When she came back and nervously handed him the glass he snatched it from her and flashed a fine row of sharp teeth. She hurried off without another word, bill clutched tightly in her hand. He had a suspicion that this one was on the house.

Remus watched the crowd in front of him out of the corner of his eye and stirred the amber liquid around absent mindedly with his finger.

For fifteen minutes he waited patiently, until a distraction graced him in the form of two boys pitted head to head, trying to out drink the other without passing out. All eyes were on the two competitors as they egged them on. What they saw was a chance to gamble, an opportunity to earn a few extra gallons. What Remus saw was an opening.

Without even a second thought regarding his drink, the werewolf rose and, just as silently as before, slipped by the wealthy boy that was too busy to worry if he was soon to be the victim of a pickpocket. Remus strode by effortlessly and relieved him of his heavy, velvet money bag that was tied at the mouth with a length of silk. He'd barley taken six steps when an outraged voice rose above all others, the drinking contest clearly long forgotten.

"Thief! Get back here!"

It took Remus a moment to realize that the 'thief' the wealthy teen was referring to was himself. It had been a long time since he'd last been caught, at least since the beginning of this career, and it'd been a long time since he'd been called on it. But Remus was no idiot, even if he was out of practice with the term thief, he still knew exactly what to do.

He bolted, bolted hard and fast to put the wolf's agility to good use.

People screamed as he darted between them. Drinks, tables, chairs, and people alike plummeted to the floor. He had hardly put half a rooms distance between himself and the large crowd, that was now yelling hatefully and chasing after him, when, for the second time that day, he ran head first into Madam Rosmerta. Muttering and cursing he pulled himself up, not even pausing to help her up and fled from the Three Broomsticks.

Remus dipped down every dirty alleyway until he reached the boundary where the outskirts of the only fully wizarding town in England met the edge of the forest. Panting for breath, he stood shakily at the mouth of the alleyway, his face hidden in shadow.

In the distance he could still here the shouts from the Three Broomsticks and the group of students he still knew to be tailing him. He glanced down and noted with relief that the money bag was still clutched between his fingers. Now that he'd been seen he definatly couldn't risk stealing anything else for the day.

Well, he thought as he stole one last glance at the town that he'd left in an uproar. Many of the people who had been victims of his earlier in the day were now noticing the absence of their valuables as well. All in a day's work.

With that last thought racing though his mind, he fled into the protective cover that the forest so willingly provided.

- 

Remus entered silently, the sun had already dropped far beyond the horizon, and hoped that Greyback was in a better mood. He was thankful when he dropped his coat that there was no repeat of the night before. His feet felt like lead, heavy as he moved across the uneven, dirt carpeted ground.

Golden orbs were wide as Remus started uncertainly forward, trying to spot any sign of life in the shadowy corners. There was a scrambling sound from behind him that made him turn sharply, toned muscles tensed and ready to spring in either fight or flight.

He tried to pick the scent out, but it was impossible to do so with so many other aromas mixed like a cocktail in the air. Remus stayed still and waited for any oncoming assault. A fiery light blazed from an oil lamp in the far left hand corner, banishing the heavy blanket of darkness away.

His eyes blinked and rolled to adjust to the new found sense of light and when his vision refocused Remus sighed and dropped his guard. He had no need to fear the person who had summoned the light.

Lying on the floor, his upper body on the main floor and his lower body resting on the floor of the makeshift tunnel that dropped sharply from the main ground into the black earth, was Aaron.

"Smoke?" The little boy's voice was cautious. He was uncertain as he locked eyes briefly with Remus before scrambling out of the tunnel and latching himself around Remus' knees.

He inhaled deeply and looked up at the older boy, grinning sheepishly.

"'Lo, Aaron," Remus whispered, falling easily into step with his long time nickname and treading his fingers through the little boy's damp locks. "All good?"

The eight-year-old nodded against his knees and tugged on his shirtsleeve, dragging him over to the opening of the tunnel.

"Nelly got another book," he said matter-of-factly, avoiding the keen golden gaze and suddenly becoming very interested in his dirt caked fingernails. "We were wondering if..." Aaron trailed off and Remus stooped to pick him up.

Remus was one of the few that did know how to read and write. He had learned at a young age from a women in Hogsmead, and he was the only one that was willing to read to them.

"Sure," the words whispered over Aaron's neck. "I'll read you a story."

The little boy grinned and squirmed out of Remus' grasp. He disappeared down the tunnel, leaving Remus behind to douse the still glowing flame of the oil lamp and follow him into the shadows. Aaron's grinning was contagious, he decided as he wove down the twisting path, with a faint smile of his own.

-

Two hours later found Remus in a den among small, snoring children. A battered book laid next to him. His fingers twisted through Aaron's hair, brushing out the dirt, twigs, and tangles that had accumulated there over the course of the day. Looking down at the dirty dish rag blond haired head in his lap brought memories flashing in his mind's eye. Remus shook his head and put all of his attention into combing Aaron's hair and listening to the soft hum of deep, even breath.

"Pack brats," he murmured affectionately, eyes taking in every one of the thirteen sleeping figures around the small, damp soil smelling den.

He had been in their shoes, hell, he still was in their shoes. Remus knew from his own past experiences that being a child in a den of werewolves was not the easiest thing in the world. Remus sighed and leaned back so that the wall supported his weight. His eyes continued to wander, as did his mind.

He remembered being bitten, remembered every minimal detail about it. Now, of course, it was more of a surreal dream, something from a movie that couldn't have possibly happened to him. But the begging. Oh God how he remembered the begging, remembered it most clearly of anything else.

It ashamed him to look back on his life and remember how he had begged to be bitten.

Remus shivered and drew his hand away from Aaron in disgust at touching something so innocent with shameful hands.

He'd seen the wolf and the strength of the wolf...Had tasted glory and a world deprived of sickness even from the first minute, glory and health that wasn't his, but glory and health that he craved for none the less...Had seen it as a way to heal him, regain the strength that he lacked due to a deadly disease that was eating him alive from the inside out.

A disease that supposedly had no cure. Obviously the doctors had never thought of curing a curse with a curse, as they so foolhardily called it. So he'd done the only thing he could do. He had practically placed his arm in a werewolf's mouth. Had placed his arm in a werewolf's mouth, the scar was still deeply engraved into his skin, in a hope to be better and stronger.

And how could Fenrir Greyback turn down willing prey?

Remus had literally thrown himself into the wolf's den.

He struggled out from under Aaron without waking the little boy and picked his way through the maze of sleeping children. Once outside in the winding, dark, dirt walled tunnel Remus took a deep breath and brushed his sweaty hair out of his eyes. His gaze drifted up to the ceiling as he tried to banish all thoughts of his childhood in the wolves' domain. Fate was highly unkind and a flood of memories was forced to come crashing back.

He had been six, he'd barley been six, when Greyback had given him the bite that altered his life forever. He remembered how Greyback had taken him back to the decapitated barn with the bed made for ten to meet the other members of the pack. Remembered being curious and afraid all at once. He'd met Ricky, Greyback's beta, had met the pack. Even after so many years he could still remember their snide remarks and outward dislike for him, partly due to his position as alpha's favorite.

How could Fenrir Greyback not favor the one who had willingly let the wolf into his life? Life went on, and Remus had struggled to adjust to his new everyday routine as he learned the ways of the werewolves and their blunt leader.

At the age of six, he started the career that would soon earn him the nickname Smoke. A professional, official, hardcore pickpocket. No question about it, Remus was the best in the business when it came to slipping away unseen with more money in his pocket than he had started out with.

For eleven years he'd stolen from unsuspecting and unwilling victims. The name Smoke came from Greyback himself. Remus had the honor of being the only wolf in the pack to be blessed with a nickname from the alpha male. It originated after Greyback had remarked that he was as quick as vanishing smoke and twice as hard to catch.

Then his mind wandered to a more secluded chamber, back to ranking claim. Without a second thought, Remus felt safe to conclude that ranking claim had to be the single most worst moment of his life.

Ranking claim was something that happened when a new wolf entered the pack, or when an old member crossed lines with a superior rank. The alpha male made the new member submit by any and all means necessary. His eyes fell from their high perch on the ceiling to the den's dark opening at his right shoulder. An electric chill ran down his body, from crown to sole. Only a few days ago he'd over heard that Aaron was due for a ranking claim just for baring his teeth.

The very thought made Remus show his own teeth. Ricky, he'd crossed Ricky. Remus was glad that Aaron was learning from him, but he wished Aaron had not picked up his habit of fighting with Ricky.

He was so engrossed in his own thoughts that he didn't notice the sound of heavy footsteps coming down the tunnel.

"Well, well, well," a dry voice drawled softly. Remus turned his head slowly to the left and silently acknowledged the two men that were still partly hidden in shadow. But it didn't matter, Remus would recognize that tone of voice anywhere. "If it ain't lil' Smoky."

The lower ranking wolf didn't say anything, but simply raised an eyebrow instead.

"Cadrod."

The two men snickered and surrounded him, one at each of his shoulders.

"Isn't it a bit late for you to be up?" The second man said with his best impression of a scolding mother. The second eyebrow joined the first and he clapped his hands slowly together, a humorless sound that echoed down the ridged corridor.

"Congratulations, Blackmorg. Congratulations," his voice was dry as he patted the hulking, broad shouldered man on the back. "I never thought I'd live to see the day that you could string more than two words together."

"Like you're one to talk," he sneered, grabbing Remus roughly by the shoulders and leaning forward so that their faces were mere inches apart. When he next spoke, his voice had dropped in volume to hardly above a whisper. "We've all heard about your little..._Stunt_," Blackmorg's tongue licked nervously at his teeth. "Down in the village."

"And this is a concern to me, why? I'm happy that I could provide you with a form of entertainment that didn't include grunting and scratching your ass, but really...Could you inform me why I should give a damn or not?" He asked with a conversational growl, prying the filthy hands away from his shoulders and sidestepping the duo.

The manic grin spread insanely from ear to ear, the insult unheard.

"Greyback doesn't know."

Remus' stomach dropped like an eighty pound stone. He knew blackmail when he heard it. Even though Blackmorg had struck a nerve he carefully kept his face molded into a mask that hid his emotions.

"I find it incredibly pathetic that you need to stoop to the level of a snitch to get into Greyback's good books," he whispered, already starting to disappear down the tunnel.

These were the last two people he wanted to see right now. And besides, he was tired.

"I'd watch my back if I were you, Smoky!" Cadrod's oily voice caught up with him.

"Well, it's a good thing you're not me then, isn't it?" Remus snorted, his back still to them as he walked slowly and evenly. "Oh, and one more thing."

He glanced over his shoulder and shot them both a piercing glare that was worthy of Fenrir Greyback. "Call me _Smoky_ again and I will personally make sure that you and I are locked in a room together at the next full moon."

"Too bad, I could beat your ass any day," Cadrod muttered.

"Isn't that what you said last time? Funny, weren't you one groaning about how much _Smoky_ tore you up?" He gave the pair of them a mock bow. "'Night, gentlemen."

With that last, parting word said he turned and walked with his back straight. Remus listened carefully for the sounds of footsteps that would tell him if they were following him or not.

There was a handful of footsteps, but they seemed to grow quieter. It was as if they were being muffled, moving away from him. The hairs on the back of Remus' neck stood on end and he whirled around just in time to catch sight of Cadrod's pant leg disappearing into the pup's den entrance.

_Aaron._

He froze, eyes narrowing as he stood and gazed suspiciously at the den's gaping mouth. Remus was still undecided if he should leave or go to investigate when his mind was made up for him by a scream that sent his blood flowing like liquid ice. Aaron's frightened wails turned to those of panic and Remus hurtled into the den.

_Aaron._

All of the thirteen children had awoken at the sound of Aaron's blood curling screeching and stood huddled wide eyed and fearful in the corner. The two men that had just confronted him moments before in the tunnel were now in the middle of the room. They towered over the cowering and sobbing little boy. Remus' mind was on auto drive. The only thing that registered to him was that Aaron was due for a ranking claim.

Greyback always sent for you.

Cadrod and Blackmorg were to fetch Aaron for the alpha male.

The sensible side of his brain never even had a chance to think about what he was doing as Remus tackled Blackmorg to the floor with a threatening snarl. They scrambled for the upper hand while Cadrod threw himself into the fray. A small ginger haired girl helped Aaron out of the middle of it all and onto safer grounds.

The three of them tumbled together, a tangle of appendages, fighting like wolves trying to defend a territory. Cadrod howled in pain when Remus' elbow collided with his jaw and Blackmorg not a moment later when a fist met his nose.

Their hostile fight was cut short when an icy chill drafted though the normally humid den and froze them all mid-stance. Panting heavily, the three werewolves turned to face the jagged arc entrance. A shadow blocked the main tunnel from view that was a darker hue of black than a dark, cloudless night. The children also seemed to detect the growing danger because they too stopped their whimpering. Remus' golden eyes traveled slowly up to meet with those of the newcomer in the doorway.

Fenrir Greyback and Remus locked eyes. Greyback jerked his head over his shoulder, wild hair flying.

"Come."

It was one word, one syllable, but it sent the three wolves scrambling for purchase. They got awkwardly to their feet, faces already blossoming with dark patches and crimson blood staining their skin vividly.

"Not you two," he snarled at the older men. Blackmorg and Cadrod shrunk away into the shadow's embrace with the trembling children.

"Well?"

Remus followed with his head ducked low. Today was definitely not his day.

Tonight there would be no falling rice to muffle his screams.

- 

"James that was my _foot_!" Sirius' voice hissed in pain as he and James shuffled awkwardly under James' invisibility cloak. At the tender age of seventeen, it was remotely harder to sneak around together under the cloak that James had inherited from his father than it had been during some of their romps at younger ages.

"Consider it pay back," the unruly haired teenager muttered, taking extra care to tread on his friend's foot again. "For the newspaper."

"Will you just drop it," he snapped, jumping up and down on one foot while he nursed his other one.

James shrugged and scanned the Marauder's Map for any sign of anyone that stood in the way for their forbidden Hogsmead visit. His brow creased while he drew his wand with a flourish and tapped the one-eyed, hump backed statue smartly with an incantation under his breath.

A moment later and then, with a groan, the age-cracked stone guard of the passageway to Honeyduke's cellar opened. There was a muttered curse after more foot stepping insured, and the whisper of cloth. The statue closed and sealed again, both boys swallowed by the consuming darkness.

It had been three weeks since their last visit to Hogsmead. And because it had been such a long period of time Sirius and James had grabbed James' invisibility cloak and made a hurried, if illegal, trip into the only purely wizarding village left in England.

They walked out of Zonkos, each laden with multiple bags full of the joke shop's products when Sirius stopped dead in the middle of the cobblestone street. Two of the bags tumbled to the ground. James shook his head, muttered something about Sirius not being what he used to be, and stooped to pick them up. When he straightened back up the only sign of Sirius was the dust trail that marked his path.

"Sirius," James groaned, hefting the bulging bags over his shoulder. He bolted after his fleeing companion. "Sirius, wait up!" James bellowed, rounding the corner of a side alley and tripping over something solid in the process.

His body pitched forward, sending him face first to the ground, limbs eagle spread. He spat a mouthful of dirt out of his mouth and rolled over, looking to see what he'd tripped over. It had been one of his friend's legs.

Sirius stood with his back half turned away from him, his face livid and shaking with rage. His wand was drawn into the shoulder blades of a stranger. The stranger was face forward into a brick wall, one of Sirius' strong arms pinning him firmly.

"Sirius, what the-"

"Now," Sirius' voice was steely and he reinforced it with a sharp jab of his wand tip. "I want you to slowly turn around when I say so. Be warned you bastard, I'm armed."

"Pity, I listen to no one," the returning voice could barley be classified as a whisper. It was more of lips simply forming the words as the wind carried them back to alert ears as a muffled growl. "And so am I..."

"What?"

His hand flew to the outsider's shoulder and was about to spin him around when the other boy whirled about and shoved him hard. Sirius felt his feet leave the dirty ground as they came out from under him. He fell into the other side of the narrow alleyway and his head collided sharply with the brick wall.

James was on his feet in an instant and hauled a cursing Sirius up while he drew his own wand and rounded to face the wild eyed pickpocket.

Hazel met gold. James had an incantation on the tip of his tongue when the other boy fled down the side street quickly, trash cans falling. The noise that they made echoed off of the narrow, dirty, alley walls. James was about to chase after him when a groan ceased all further motion on his part. There was a moment of hesitation, glancing at the empty alley where the thief had vanished to Sirius, before he turned around and helped Sirius Sirius was standing up weekly, his legs shaking slightly and the wall supporting most of his lean weight.

"Are you okay-"

"Yeah, that's right! You'd better run you slimy, fucking bastard!" Sirius yelled in the direction of the alley mouth. "I'm fine," he sighed, reaching a hand up to massage the back of his head. When he drew his fingers away to inspect the damage they were tinted with blood.

"Fine? You're bleeding! How are you fine if you're-"

"I said I'm fine, so either stay here or c'mon," he stumbled toward the main street, his world spinning, and James followed at his heels.

"What the hell," James muttered as he helped his friend make his way awkwardly down the street. More than one pair of curious eyes followed their progress as they hobbled along. "What is it with you and attacking innocent-"

"He wasn't innocent," Sirius cut his best friend off fiercely and shook his arm free from James' grasp. "That little bitch is the one who cheated me out of fifty gallons. Fifty, James!"

"I know, I know!" James interjected quickly, throwing his hands up in the air. James could now place where the face had looked so familiar. "It's not like I haven't heard it all a million times by now."

"Filthy son of a bitch-" James' sigh went unheard.

"Look, we should probably get your head checked out. That cut looks pretty nasty."

Sirius snorted.

"Don't be stupid, I'll be-" he froze again and James looked around, trying to catch sight of the thief that had robbed Sirius of his fifty gallons. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"There's no one there-"

James turned back to find Sirius crumpled on the ground. He had seemingly passed out.

"Oh, yeah," he said dryly as he dragged Sirius up and toward the Three Broomsticks. "You're fine. Perfectly fine."

-

Remus stood, back pressed firmly against the clay like wall of the underground tunnels that led to all of the various dens, panting heavily with an open mouth. Fuck, forget it not being his day, it wasn't his month. That had been the second time in the course of a month that he'd nearly been caught. Remus had been positive that if he stayed clear of the village for three weeks that nobody would even remember him. Up until the familiar boy with the raven hair had spotted him, his theory had held true.

And Hogwarts had just had a Hogsmead weekend not all too long ago. If the boy really was a Hogwarts' student, like the robes he'd had on three weeks ago suggested he was, then why was he in Hogsmead when he wasn't allowed to be? He shook his head and scolded himself for thinking about the hour's events. What did it matter if he'd been seen by some nobody anyway? Just as long as he wasn't caught. That was all that mattered.

When he resurfaced from his jumble of thoughts there was only one thing on his mind. A long, hot shower. A long, hot, blood boiling shower that would surely make him oblivious to such unnerving thoughts.

-

"I'm telling you, Pads, it's not gonna work," James sighed as he stuffed his two foot Transfiguration essay in his school bag.

"How so?" The person in question asked, standing in front of a wall length mirror and unwrapping the stark white, hospital gauze from the cut on the back of his head.

"Well, first of all," James said, standing up and helping Sirius remove the last few inches of bandage from his now healed wound. "How are you gonna find him?"

Sirius snorted and tossed the bandages into the trashcan. "Shouldn't be too hard, just look for the guy who has more money in his pocket than he should."

"But what if you do find him? I doubt you'll come across him anyway."

"Isn't that the point?"

James bit his lip and tried to chose his next words carefully. "What if he hurts you-"

"C'mon, Jim! How many people do you know that would actually hurt a dog?"

"Well, since you put it that way-"

"Your cousin Jordan isn't included in that total, by the way," Sirius clarified dryly.

He snatched up James' invisibility cloak it's hiding place. James shut his mouth quickly and settled for looking at Sirius wearily as he unfolded the shimmering material with a flick of his wrist.

"Make sure you be careful."

Sirius' eyes rolled to meet the ceiling. "Yes, Mother."

"And don't get caught."

"Will do, Ma," he snickered, pulling the indistinguishable cloak over his head.

"And you'll be back within the hour?" James' eyes were still fixed on the spot where he'd last seen his best friend. "Remember you're just going to-"

"Tail him home, demand a full refund...And then maul him if I have any extra time," Sirius' slightly muffled voice came from the vicinity of the door.

"Sirius-"

But at that moment the door opened and closed none to quietly and Sirius was gone.

"Good luck, Padfoot."

-


	3. Chapter 3

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

Beta read by ErikaDominica2790.

Blood Chronicles

-

It was another two hours before the door creaked open again and a tired Sirius shuffled in, the corner of the Marauder's Map poking out of his back pocked and the invisibility cloak tucked away from any wandering eyes. James sat up straight on the edge of his four poster, crumbling his parchment of comic book drawings between his fingers and lobbing it in the trashcan. Sirius didn't even acknowledge him as he flopped, face first, onto his own unmade bed.

"Sir-"

"Not a word," he mumbled, his speech handicapped through the pillow.

"What happened? Did you find him? Are you alright?" questions flew from James' mouth at light speed and he felt more then a little guilty that his last question concerned his friend's health. Sirius heaved a long suffering sigh and pulled the pillow over his head. "Sirius?" James sat down on the end of the bed, generally concerned.

"Ikodntlindem," he grumbled into the sheet draped mattress.

"What?"

"I couldn't find him," Sirius said audibly as he lifted his head slightly and then slammed in back onto the mattress. James smirked, patted his best friend on the head, got up, killed the light, and crawled into his own bed.

"Hey Sirius?" he asked after two full minutes of ringing silence, his arms bent behind his head as he gazed knowingly at the ceiling.

"Yeah?"

"I told you so."

"Shaddup, Potter."

-

"It didn't work the first time around, so what makes you so sure it'll work the second time around?"

"Gut feeling."

James scrunched up his nose and twirled his Head Boy badge around between his fingers.

"Your gut feelings aren't famous for being right."

"Well this one's right, I can feel it. How many gut feelings do you have that you really feel?"

"According to you this would be the seventh gut feeling that you can really feel in the past two days. Do you remember what happened to us the last time you had a gut feeling that you could-"

"Just shut up and give me the Goddamn cloak."

-

Padfoot trotted easily down the cluttered side yards of the tiny, but cozy, houses of Hogsmead, with the dieing rays of the sun on his shoulders. The bear like black dog reached the corner and slowed his pace until he was at a stand still.

He wined and looked up and down the main street, silver eyes searching for any sign of the pickpocket he was hoping to bring to justice. No dice, the street was void of all suspicious looking, potential thieves. Great, that was just his luck. The boy turned dog slouched heavily on his haunches and was just starting to think that James was right when it came to his gut feelings, when something caught his attention.

His head snapped swiftly to the side, ears pricked forward, back straight, and body tense like a spring ready to snap. Something had just whipped around the corner at the far end of the cobblestone street, where the outskirts of the town faded into the wild forest. Something that looked vaguely familiar.

Like a bullet, Padfoot tore down the street, nearly knocking over an elderly woman who was laden with shopping bags in the process. He rounded the corner and at the very end of the alleyway, half hidden in shadow, was the very boy he'd been trying to track down for the better part of the past two days.

The canine cocked his head to one side and watched as he poured a seemingly endless waterfall of golden coins into his hand. He snorted the best a dog could manage. So it seemed that his new, cunning friend had a hobby. Padfoot picked his way gradually down the alley, trying his best to look frightening with his pinned ears, raised lips, bared teeth, and bristling fur.

His back foot turned over a stone and the boy froze. Padfoot growled low and threateningly in his throat. The pickpocket turned, but when his eyes landed on Padfoot he let out the breath he'd been holding.

The grim Animagus was taken aback by the non-fazed reaction but advanced none the less, if not more terrifyingly than before. For the most part the thief ignored him. He counted the gold, silver, and bronze coins, pulling a disgusted face whenever he came across a Sickle and pushed them into the bag without touching them. Only when Padfoot was fully upon him did he turn to face the dog again.

"Stupid dog," he muttered, kicking up the rocks beneath his shoes. "Go 'way." Padfoot flinched away from the flying stones.

So it seemed that James' cousin Jordan wasn't the only person alive who would hurt a dog. When all the coins were safely tucked away, he fled down the opposite end of the dirty walled alley. Padfoot cantered lazily after him. He wasn't going to let some petty attack hinder him.

When Remus reached the edge of the forest, he looked over his shoulder, double checking that dusk was providing a good cover for his hurried escape. Golden eyes landed on the happily panting canine and narrowed.

"What do you want?" he snapped, patience thinning at an alarming rate. Padfoot sat down and wagged his tail enthusiastically. "I don't have anything for you." the dog cocked his head to the side and his tail flew like a twig in the core of a tornado. "Mutt."

Remus disappeared into the dense woods with a tongue lolling mutt in his wake.

Twigs, and dead autumn leaves snapped and crackled under Remus' boots as he trudged through the forest to the earth walled den that he'd called home for nearly eleven years. Padfoot followed faithfully, if not a few paces behind for in fear of another blow. His nostrils flared to inhale the mingled dusk sent of the woods and his eyes widened to take in his new surroundings.

The shaggy, midnight black dog sighed and jogged on, wondering all the while where they were actually distended to go. He'd never been in this part of the woods before and took a special notice of how much wilder and darker it seemed compared to the other parts. They must have walked at least two miles when a new reverberation made his ears perk forward.

Laughter. Children's laughter.

Children? Padfoot thought as he strained his ears for more out of the ordinary noises and eyes for any out of the ordinary sights. What would a bunch of kids be doing this far in the middle of nowhere?

Not a moment later did he and his leader emerge into a large clearing that was scattered with wild berry bushes and what looked like a badly managed door into the side of a sloping hillside. Around the vast clearing ran about a dozen or more children, all engaged in some kind of made up game whose winner and rules was uncertain.

Padfoot stopped short of the edge of the wild grass meadow, and for the first time in a half an hour let his prey get more then six feet away from him, and blinked twice. Of all the things in the world he'd expected to find, a group of laughing, running children in the middle of a otherwise lifeless forest was not very high on his list.

His vision refocused and still presented him with the same sight. Same laughing, running, obnoxious brats. He shook his head. Exactly the same result. He pawed at his face. Nope, same.

Padfoot stood perplexed and watched as they all froze mid-play at the approach of the pickpocket. A hot, bubbling, molten fire rage boiled deep within the dog's belly. What if he was here to hurt them? How low could you get to want to hurt a bunch of-

"Smoke!" the tiny voices bellowed in unison and a mob of little bodies formed rapidly.

They tore down the clearing and tackled the boy like a twenty foot storm surge wave. His earlier rage and rancor evaporated quickly and was replaced with something twice as sickening.

Guilt.

What if all of these kids were his family? What if they were all his little brothers and sisters and that the only reason he'd stolen money in the first place was to feed them all? Padfoot was torn between prancing into the field like a harmless puppy and turning tail and running all the way back to his dorm room. He shifted uneasily, feeling very much like he was intruding on something that was never meant to be seen by outside eyes, whether they be human or dog. Thankfully he didn't have to make a decision.

"-a puppy! Smoke brought home a puppy!"

The puppy in question only had enough time to realize that the puppy they were talking about was him before he was drowned in a flurry of hailing hands. He yelped at the sudden, unexpected surge of attention and bolted across the uneven ground to hide behind the person who had brought him home in the first place.

A dozen running, yelling children were right on his tail. Literally. But the moment he paused to take a breath they were on him in an instant, dragging him down to the ground, tugging ruthlessly at his ears, and petting his sleek body. His human shield backed away from them, amused smirk playing on his lips.

Damn him, I bet he's really enjoying this.

"Alright, alright! Don't suffocate him! Whose hungry?"

Those two simple words sent them flocking off of Padfoot and around the amused speaker's knees. Padfoot rolled back onto his feet, thanking his lucky stars that all those brats were too hungry to worry much about smothering him to death. He shook his body, dirt scattering from his shaggy fur that stood up in every direction, rumpled by little hands and trotted with a sulking air over to the foot of the house set into the hillside.

Now seemingly more interested in the promise of food then the thought of a puppy to terrorize, the children filed in nosily through the door. He started to follow them inside with the hopes of scraps on his mind when he was hauled firmly back by the scruff of his neck. The dog growled and whirled around, only to come face to face with the pickpocket.

"You," he jabbed a finger at Padfoot, "Need to stay with me," now he pointed to himself. "At all times. Got that?"

Padfoot rolled his eyes the best a dog could manage and wagged his tail in response. It often slipped his mind that not many others knew the secret that was Sirius Black and Padfoot. Actually, apart from him and James nobody knew. And he intended to keep it that way.

"And whatever you do," he snapped back to reality with that said. "Stay clear, completely clear, of Greyback."

He cocked his head...He'd heard that name before. Greyback...For a few moments he rolled the name over and over in his head and when nothing clicked gave it up as a lost cause and wagged his tail again. The pickpocket sighed and stood up, ran a hand through his uncombed hair.

"God, Remus," he muttered, more to himself then to his canine companion. "You're losing it buddy. First to drag home some stray mutt," here he paused to glare accusingly at the stray mutt that he'd brought home. "And now you're talking to him," he sighed and shook his head sadly. "And now you're talking to yourself about talking to a stupid dog...Great, that's just wonderful."

He went inside and waited until Padfoot followed him in before the door shut out the outside world.

Remus? the dog thought as he trotted at the boy's heels down a steep incline with soil walls. What kind of a name is Remus? Strange...

Padfoot glanced around and easily came to the decision that maybe it wasn't that weird of a name for a guy who made a living off pick pocketing, talking to himself, lived under ground, and it cap it all off he could put up with a heard of dog terrorizing children. No, the name fit just fine.

Around the next bend in the winding passageway more voices bounced off the walls, magnified ten fold by the close proximity. Remus' shoulders tensed and he glanced down at Padfoot before he rounded the final corner and entered into a large, poorly lit, room.

Its walls and floor, like the rest of the tunnel's, were constructed solidly out of dirt and clay. Eight or nine oil lamps hung in iron brackets on the earthy walls, casting flickering shadows across some thirty people and a long, decrepit, wooden table. The voices ceased abruptly as Remus and his canine companion crossed the length of the room.

At his ease Remus avoided their accusing stares and whispers and rested his weight against the far wall, golden eyes gazing back at them coolly, silently challenging. The giant, shaggy dog sat awkwardly at his feet, scarlet tongue lolling and sterling eyes sweeping to take in all of the occupants gathered in the room.

What the...What the hell's going on here? Padfoot mused and laid down on the ground, head resting on his forepaws and suddenly feeling extremely uncomfortable as the crowds' eyes averted to him. Big mistake. This sudden movement brought the children's attention back to the big puppy.

They were all over him in a second, the noise restored completely and he could do little next to noting but attempt to roll away from them. It didn't help when one was outnumbered thirteen to one. He tried fighting them off to the best of his ability, but when his most vicious growl only resulted in a small girl grinning and baring her own teeth in turn, Padfoot sighed and gave it up as one battle he wouldn't be winning anytime soon. He slumped in defeat and let the little monsters tug ruthlessly on his ears.

The conversation started back up until it swelled in volume to a roar again. Padfoot sighed and wondered who all the people were and what they were doing in the middle of a deserted forest, and underground at that.

Either they're all family or a gang of thieves...but even if they are, why are they underground? Oh great, I probably just stumbled upon a goldmine of wanted, highly dangerous criminals. That's just my luck. He thought.

A sudden eerie stillness cut his train of thought off. Padfoot looked around and searched for the source of the silence and for the reason that the brats scrambled away from him and pressed against the walls. The cause seemed to be in the form of a brutal looking, clumsily shaven man that prowled more than walked to the head of the table and seated himself. The others quickly followed suit, equally as quiet.

Padfoot slunk under the table and went to sit at Remus' feet. He nudged at the pickpocket's thigh with his nose and whimpered for a piece of their dinner. Remus' head tilted down and, when his eyes locked onto a happily panting Padfoot, his radiant eyes widened.

He shot a glance to the man next to him at the head of the table. An array of food appeared form the confines of the occupants' clothing. Rolls cart wheeled across the table, chicken legs laid on chipped plates, bottles of root beer set in the center, all in various degrees of fullness, bags of chips, apples, and many other varieties of food were piled onto the table.

It was then that the dog's stomach decided to give a hungry lurch and he pawed again at Remus' knee, hoping to get a bite of their feast.

Remus' hand swatted at his muzzle and Padfoot sulked on down the table, trying to find someone that'd surely take pity on a poor, starving canine like himself. He stopped at the chair next to Remus' and pawed at its occupant's legs instead. The dog yelped and skidded out from under the table when the owner of the legs lashed out and kicked him hard in the ribs.

All the eyes in the room were once again on the black dog that was nursing his injured side. Slowly, painfully slowly, Remus rose form his chair and edged toward the door, head low and hands curling and uncurling into fists. He was almost at the door when a rusty voice made him stop in his tracks.

"Who brought in the mutt?" silence answered the question and Padfoot's head snapped up.

God, he was getting sick of being called a mutt.

I'll have you know that I'm a pureblood, thank-you very much, he thought bitterly as he drew himself to his full height and puffed out his chest courageously.

Silver eyes took in the severe man's profile and all at once the name Greyback fell into place.

Holy shit, what have I gotten myself into? Padfoot contemplated as he backed up against the wall with the terrible images seen on the front page of the Daily Prophet flashing in his mind's eye.

Fenrir Greyback, the most savage and loathsome werewolf known to date, and he was in the same room with him. The dog's eyes swept nervously over every one of the weary faces, realization slowly creeping into the very marrow of his bones and chilling him form the inside out.

He was in a den of werewolves with a full moon that was a few days off. Padfoot wheeled around and made a blind dash for the door. His feet had barley carried him three paces when he was hoisted off the ground by the scruff of his neck.

The Animagus yelped and thrashed helplessly in the air, fearing if this man had the strength to lift a hundred sixty pound dog with one hand then what else he could possibly do.

This is the end, he thought, closing his eyes as his tail tucked itself between his legs. I'm done, I'm finished. I'll never get to see James again, or tell my parents how much I fucking hate them. I'll never sit in another detention with MickyG again or steel food from the kitchens that I'm technically not supposed to know about. I'll never be able to tell Colewood to start acting like a girl ever again. Good bye cruel, cruel world.

A small voice broke though his final musings and the death grip on the back of his neck subsided until he fell to the floor.

"'Moke brought da puppy home."

Padfoot picked himself up and shook the dirt form his ebony coat, cursing his luck of not being able to land on his four feet like his feline counterparts. There was an almighty roar of noise as chairs went flying and the table over turned.

The disgruntled dog just managed to duck out of the way before the corner of the shabby table collided with his head. He slunk into the shadows in the far corner and watched as the surrounding chaos unfolded before him.

All the werewolves flooded toward the door, all wanting to be the first one out. A wild eyed Greyback caught Remus by the wrist and threw him against the wall. Remus cried out imperceptibly and latched his hands around his attacker's shoulders. His fingernails dug into the flesh and left half moon craters filling with blood in their wake. A little boy broke away form the dwindling crowd and started clawing his way up Greyback's leg, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Leave Smoke alone, you'll kill 'em!"

Greyback shook him off easily as though he were a leaf and backhanded him. The dirty blond haired boy fell to the floor with a strangled scream and that's when all true hell broke out.

Padfoot's sterling eyes were not fast enough to catch the blur that was Remus and Greyback tumbling together to the floor in a tangle of limbs. It didn't take long for their fight to subside. The younger of the two men was shoved face first into the dirt. They fought against one another and the dog's eye caught the glint of a pocket knife as the pickpocket withdrew it from his back pocket.

Someone cleared their throat stridently form the doorway and their to the death battle evaporated.

His head whipped around to see just what had caused the two werewolves to stop quarreling. He felt his jaw drop when he saw the last person on Earth that he'd expected to see in the middle of a werewolves' den. Standing in the doorway, arms crossed across her chest, legs clad in a pair of hip hugging jeans, a short forest green tee shirt, and two toned hair tied back in a low pony tail was none other then one Amelia Colewood.

The very Amelia Colewood who had become like the sister he'd never had. The same Amelia Colewood, who had become a best friend to him over the past seven years that they had shared the house of Gryffindor. Amelia Colewood, Hogwarts' resident tomboy, the one who completely insisted to be addressed by her last name at all times, one of his best friends, and James' cousin, was the very last person he had expected to see standing in the shadow pained doorway.

As they got to their feet, sharp canines bared, her chocolate brown eyes flickered over to him. Slowly, her eyebrow rose as she pivoted to face the duo again.

"A dog? What's a dog doing in here?" she asked and shook her head. "You're a wolf Fenrir, I never pictured you as a dog person."

"I'm not," he snarled, shooting an accusing glare at Remus. Remus matched him with a lethal, death glare of his own. "But 'Moke just had to bring da puppy home!" he shouted, imitating the little girl who had broke the news the first time around.

Colewood uncrossed her arms and walked across the room at her leisure, coming to a halt inches in front of Remus.

"Well, well, well, Smoke," her forefinger brushed along the underside of his chin. "Aren't you a good lad? Now why can't you learn form Smoke, Fenrir?" she asked devilishly, turning on her heel to smirk at him. "You could learn a lot from him, he's such a good dog. Maybe if you ask real nice he'll give you some lessons."

"What are you doing here?" Remus asked breathlessly. Colewood shrugged and withdrew her hand.

"I managed to sneak out of the castle for a bit and it really wasn't that hard to find you," her eyes rolled heaven ward. "All one needs to do is follow the sounds of outraged voices."

"I-" he started, but she over rode him with a heightened volume.

"Now boys, what's all the fuss about this time?"

"That mutt," Greyback growled, jerking his head toward the still too shocked to move dog.

"Oh, please, more like that's just an excuse," Remus muttered and Greyback was on him again in a second.

With a yell Colewood threw herself between the two of them and shoved them apart.

"Can't you finish this later?" she hissed. "I've only got a few hours and I'd rather not waste it by playing mediator for your little wrestling match."

Greyback whirled away and stormed toward the door, mouth working furiously, but no words issued forward, hands clenched into fists, and his face contorted with hardly controlled fury.

"Later," he snarled, pausing in the arch like doorway. "We'll finish this later." He turned around, but turned one last time as if having a second thought. "And get that brute out of here."

They watched him leave in tense silence and Remus let out a long breath when the last hint of thundering footsteps faded.

"You really shouldn't fight with him," Colewood said softly, resting a hand on his shoulder as he slumped against the wall and sluggishly slid down in.

"No shit, but what other choice do I have? If you have one, let me know. I'm open to all suggestions," her fingers danced across his forehead and they sighed in unison.

"I'm fresh out of brilliant plans at the moment, but I've got one for you to try. Very low cost too."

"Yeah?"

"How about not upsetting him for once?"

He grinned sheepishly and bowed his head as her light touches vanished. "Never heard of it."

"Look, I know it's hard. Just-"

"Colewood," a gravely voice called out lowly, the hallway walls carrying the name to their ears.

"Just wait one Goddamn minute!" she yelled irritably over her shoulder. Then she turned to face him one last time. "Just be careful, yeah?"

"I've been doing this all my life, I think I can take care of myself funnily enough."

"You're a very good actor then."

He flicked her off casually, which she returned with a little more vigor.

"You'd best get going, don't want to keep him waiting. You haven't seen anything close to scary unless you've seen a wolf deprived of having someone in their bed."

"Wolves use beds?"

"Haven't you ever heard of little red ridding hood?"

"Smart ass."

"Bitch."

"Bastard."

"Mother-"

"Colewood."

There was a slight pause in their conversation.

"Well, that's interesting," Remus remarked with a flat tone.

"What?"

"Never pictured you as the mothering type."

"Shut it, 'Moke," Colewood punched him in the shoulder, grinned apologetically, mock saluted him and then disappeared into the shadow blanketed hallway were Greyback was waiting for her.

Remus snorted and wondered how one seventeen-year-old girl could control the most feared werewolf of the day when not even a few hundred Auros could. He didn't mind, not by a long shot. He liked what her presence did. At least he could be ensured one night without the threat of a pissed off alpha werewolf looming over his head constantly. He waited until their bickering voices subsided into noting before he too took his leave.

Worse then siblings, those two are, Remus thought as he started for the archway.

"C'mon you," he mumbled to the dog that sat dumbstruck and gazing at the archway with glazed over eyes.

No, no, no, no, no! This is not happening! My best friend is not corresponding with a pack of werewolves! She's not…having any relations with…that…that… Padfoot couldn't even contemplate the thought so he let it hang, open ended in the air.

"Great, not only am I stuck with a dog, but I'm stuck with a dumb dog," Remus sighed after noticing Padfoot's glaze eyed expression.

Padfoot shook himself mentally and glared at his offender. It wasn't his fault that he was shell shocked upon finding out that his fellow Gryffindor was having connections with a bunch of bloodthirsty beasts and therefore seemed a bit out of focus. He huffed and trotted out the door, his head and tail held haughtily high. Behind him his follower rolled his eyes towards the ceiling, but followed suit nonetheless.

They came to a fork in the tunnel and Padfoot hesitated before turning right.

"This way," an amused voice said behind him and he wheeled around and darted in front of Remus again.

He was very determined to stay at the head of their duo. Remus turned again, this time into a smaller, enclosed den. It was dark, unnaturally so and the Animagus froze. A lone oil lamp blazed to life and his sterling eyes took a second to adjust to the sudden light.

"Well," Remus turned to face his canine guest as the dog's gaze flew around the small den that held scarcely more then a mound of blankets in an array of patterns, a black backpack, a worn edged desk and the same dirt walls and floor that were sported throughout the rest of the cavern.

Remus spread his arms wide and sighed. "Welcome to my life."

-


	4. Chapter 4

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

Beta read by ErikaDominica2790.

Blood Chronicles

-

Four hours passed in relative quiet, the light haired pickpocket lay comfortably on his mound of quilts, tossing a small red ball into the air and then snatching it back absent mindedly. Padfoot lay in the corner, head resting on his paws, and watched as the red ball went up and down, up and down, up and down over and over again. He liked the way Remus' reflexes reacted so well.

Stupid werewolves and their amazing reflexes. He'd make a terribly good Seeker-

"Hey," a breathless voice broke the calm silence as well as his train of thought. Padfoot jerked around to inspect the intruder, but the ball never ceased its constant hurtling.

"'Lo, Colewood," Remus said casually, eyes fixed on the ball as it went up and down, up and down, up and-

"Goddammit, why do you have to be so difficult?" she sighed and walked over to him, making a grab for the ball. He was faster and snatched it away from her reach, but did not throw it again.

"Difficult how?" Remus asked with a raised eyebrow.

She opened her mouth, but quickly shut it again. There was no way she was going to rise to the bait and start arguing with him.

"I'm off," Colewood told him simply instead.

"In more ways than one." Colewood blushed, something Padfoot had never seen her do before, and punched him in the shoulder.

Over in the corner Padfoot's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. Being the master of sexual puns that he was, he knew what 'off' Remus was referring to. And Colewood's blush did nothing but admit that the pun had been well placed. If possible his eyes grew even larger at the sight of dark, blossoming bruises erupting over her neck and collar bone.

His eyes traveled lower to the exposed skin between her wrinkled tee shit and, somehow, even lower jeans and took in the dark spots around her hips. He was sure that there were more, even if they were covered by disheveled clothing.

"Shut up, you're just jealous because you have to do it yourself," she snapped and didn't even try to cover her bruises, completely unashamed.

His eyebrow rose slowly again, the small rubber ball fell from his hand and rolled on the ground before coming to a halt when it hit Padfoot's nose. The dog sneezed, but he was ignored by the two other occupants in the room. Remus stood up and matched her inch for inch.

"Are you really that naïve?" he whispered, his face extremely close to hers. "Do you really think you're the only one in his bed? Wait-" he cut her off with a finger tip to her lips. Her head whipped away from him, anger burning in her eyes. "Let me rephrase that, because technically, you are. Or at least the only willing one. He needs someone to suck him off when you're not here to be his bitch-"

It was her turn to cut him off with a sharp, hard slap to the face.

"Don't call me-" while she hissed lowly Remus paused and then picked up from where he'd left off at.

"Thus where I come in," Remus tilted his head to the floor in a polite nod. "'Night, miss."

She stood speechless, her mouth opening and closing like a fish gasping for air, but no words would come out.

"Smoke-"

"I have things to do."

Colewood's lips quirked at the corners and her eyes fell on the red ball that Padfoot was busy batting around on the floor.

"Because playing with balls is just so much fun," she drawled dryly.

"I wouldn't call it fun." It took her a minute longer to catch onto the second pun, but Padfoot was regarding Remus with a sense of admiration. It seemed as if the pun master finally had some competition.

"Look, I just-"

"I've no time for games right now, Colewood," he said softly, drawing an age creased map from the front pocket of his backpack. "I've got important things to attend to. I'm sorry to say that they are more important then wasting my time by arguing with you, but they are."

Remus unfolded the map and gave it all of his attention. Colewood sighed and waited another minute before she left without another word. Padfoot watched her go from his corner, head rolling with all of his new discoveries.

He was in a den with a pack of wolves. Not to mention that Fenrir Greyback was included among that total. His friend, Amelia Colewood, had connections them. And she knew that they were bloodthirsty monsters. The same Amelia Colewood was in a willing sexual relationship with the most vicious, vile, bloodthirsty, murdering, monstrous werewolf to mankind.

And to cap it all off he was stuck with a teenage werewolf that was being raped on a regular basis and was currently plotting something in secret that couldn't possibly mean anything good.

Well, wasn't that just peachy.

Soft footsteps sounded against the natural carpeted floor and Padfoot's head snapped back to the archway door, ears perked forward. Was Colewood coming back already? But the little figure that appeared in the doorframe after a handful of more footsteps was not Colewood.

The little boy that had defended Remus earlier in the spacious room that had served as a dinning room, stood at the entrance. He had bruises taking form all over his pale face. Padfoot had to avert his eyes in order to sever a flood of emotions that threatened to engulf him. It looked like Greyback would not tolerate any from of disobedience and that all who stepped out of line were to be punished.

He entered quietly and without permission, unevenly cut hair falling over one black eye and arms crossed protectively across his chest in what looked like a standing fetal position. Remus followed his movement with his golden eyes, gaze drinking in the painful reminders of what was in store for him. Only when he reached the pile of mussed blankets did he look the older boy in the eyes, silent tears flooding down his face.

"He wants you," the little eight-year-old whispered in a chocked voice, rocking his arms back and forth as if to lull an invisible baby to sleep.

"You didn't need to do that," Remus said just as quietly. "I don't want you to get hurt-"

"And I don't want you do get hurt!" the boy said fiercely, his hazel eyes brimmed with unshed tears.

"I can take care of myself, Aaron," he growled lowly. Aaron's lower lip trembled and Remus stood up and gathered him up in his arms with no difficulty.

"It's not fair, what he does to you," his voice was shaky and he balled a fist in Remus's shirt. Padfoot felt as if he was intruding on something very personal and looked away, but no matter what he did, he couldn't stop himself from over hearing what they said.

"Who said life was fair?" Remus laughed non-humorously. "Who ever told you life was fair lied to you."

"I know he hurts you."

Remus fell silent and felt an unwanted embarrassment well up in his chest.

"Don't worry, I always come out okay, don't I?"

"What if…If one time y-you don't?"

"Hush, none of that now. I'm grateful for what you did, Aaron. But I can hold my own, I really can," Remus assured him.

"But-"

Remus silenced him with a finger pressed firmly against his speech parted lips. It was quiet as they departed from the room and Padfoot could hear their footsteps echoing down the corridor. Silver eyes followed their retreat, swimming with a thousand different emotions.

Padfoot whimpered and hid himself, confused, beneath the mound of blankets, his nose was the only visible part sticking out between the folds of material. He should leave, he knew that much. The dog's eyes traveled to the door and the now eerily quiet corridor that lay beyond it. He couldn't help but wince at the very thought of what was happening within the underground cavern.

In the morning, he'd leave in the morning.

With that settled, Padfoot slumped, his eye lids closing like heavy lead and tried to drift off into an uneasy slumber and waited for morning to come.

-

One minute.

Two minutes.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

It was impossible to keep track of how long he stood, waiting outside the wide archway that opened up into the alpha's chambers. Trying to remember how long he procrastinated was as hard as keeping water cupped in hands with spread fingers. As fast as the water could trickle away so did the minutes.

He took a deep breath and took his weight off of the wall where it had rested for God only knew how long. Long fingers skated over the scar tissue he bore as a souvenir to past disobedience.

"Not this time," he whispered, glowing eyes flashing in the darkness. "You're not touching me this time."

Feeling resolved, emotionless mask hiding his rage, fear, and determination, he stepped into the consuming shadows. And for the second time in his life Remus felt like he was throwing himself into the wolf's den.

"Greyback," he was surprised at how even his voice sounded, so void of the array of fire hot emotions pulsing through his veins. A whisper of his name was the only hint of a warning before something streaked out of a shadowed corner and slammed him into the wall. Anger flared within him and, with an enormous amount of strength, switched their positions.

"Don't touch me, you bastard, just don't even try," Remus snarled, breath ghosting over Greyback's ear. A second later, he flew backwards until his back slammed into the opposite wall. Remus dropped to his knees, fingers clawing into the dirt of the floor.

"You always have been an ungrateful little-" Remus was panting, eyes franticly scanning for a sign of his violent attacker.

"Ungrateful? What else do you expect me do be?" It was as if a dam had finally spilt down the seams. "Grateful, perhaps? Grateful for what?!"

"I could have left you to die, I didn't have to take you're sorry ass in and raise you as my own child-"

"Your own child?" Remus hissed, eyes still trying to pin down the prowling alpha male. "Well then I'm glad you don't have any damn kids of your own if this is how you treat them."

He tugged at his tee-shirt and bared his scarred neck. Wrong move.

They rolled to the floor, fighting for dominance that only came when Remus lay flat on his back with his wrists pinned in one of Greyback's clawed hands.

"They would have never accepted you," he growled, voice low and raspy.

Death scented words that made shivers race down Remus' spine.

"How do you know, you've never even-" Remus started in a quiet voice.

"Because you're a werewolf! A fucking Dark creature. They would have feared you! They would have hated you, would have despised you."

Remus was left speechless, the words hitting home like a smack to the face. He didn't fight, didn't try to free himself anymore.

"You never knew my parents," he whispered, turning his head away to focus his gaze on the wall that was barley visible though the thick cover of shadows.

"How would you know? You didn't even know them that long."

"They were nice-"

"How would you know?! They hated you! After you'd been bitten they'd' have had you put down like a rabid dog! If I hadn't taken you in you wouldn't have let the wolf in. You'd never be this strong, this powerful, this free."

His head snapped forward to meet steely gaze with steely gaze. "Free indeed. I escaped one prison just to be banished to another."

"Are you saying that you'd rather be chained up?" Greyback's eyes narrowed to slits. "Saying that you'd rather be a good little puppy, that you'd rather be someone's fucking lap dog?"

"I'm yours, aren't I?"

The resulting blow was enough to set his world spinning for an entire month. Calmly he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and sucked his tainted fingers clean.

Greyback's mouth caught his in a brutal kiss, tongue diving between his lips to capture the blood that had pooled there. Remus tilted his head back obediently and mentally started to count to three.

One

Two

Three

Greyback's hands started to wander.

Remus retaliated by seizing the intruding tongue between his sharp teeth and bit down hard.

The agonized roar that ripped itself from Greyback's throat was swallowed whole as Remus refused to let go. They fought one another, neither willing to give up without a fight. Sharp, dagger like claws put an end to Remus' retaliation as they tore down his sides, leaving a trail of blood in their wake. He let go of his prey abruptly and stifled his scream in his sleeve as he rolled away from Greyback. The alpha stumbled to his feet, vivid red liquid flowing freely down his chin, and yanked Remus to his feet.

Remus yelped as the skin of his sides stretched. The taste of his own coppery blood mixed with his maker's metallic life fluid was more than enough to make him feel dizzy with bloodlust.

"I gave you a life you don't even deserve! And this is how you repay me?"

"You're right on one account," Remus mumbled, wiping the blood away from his mouth. He couldn't help but lick his fingers clean. "I don't deserve-"

"Are you trying to tell me that you'd rather live with those pathetic excuse for parents?" he grinned manically, mockingly. "They'd raise you right, raise you to hate the wolf, to reject its power."

Greyback paused and smacked him across the face, the seventeen-year-old went tumbling to the ground. He looked up through the anger and fear that clouded his eyes at the man, wolf's, leering and taunting face.

"Send you to school, they would. No doubt they'd try to get you accepted into Hogwarts!"

By now, Greyback was roaring with manic laughter.

"I can imagine them trying to plead their case now," Greyback broke off and imitated a high pitched, whinny voice. "He's harmless we swear! Never would hurt a fly, our Remmie would. Nope, he's a tame werewolf. Make's a very good house pet, but I'd keep an issue of the Daily Prophet handy, Dumbledore, he isn't quiet housetrained yet."

The amused, golden eyed, alpha was beside himself with glee as he taunted and nearly doubled over with the force of his laughter. Remus had developed a good enough poker face over the years to avoid wincing.

He did make one fatal mistake, however, one that would cost him all the hard work he had used to keep from wincing. He averted his eyes, moved his head to face the wall slightly. Slightly was all it took.

The insane, not in the least bit warm, laughter that rocketed off the walls ceased to become a mere memory of the past as the glee died from Fenrir Greyback's face. He bent over Remus and forced his head up. Their keen golden eyes met and in seven minutes he had decoded the seemingly impossible puzzle that was Remus. Realization clouded his eyes and Greyback out right howled with fury, sending Remus rolling away from his rampage.

The younger werewolf gritted his teeth together as dirt ground its way into the slashes on his sides. He should have know better than to show that fleeting moment of hope, of dreams long away dampened and destroyed.

"You little son of a bitch!"

Remus just narrowly dodged the hand that made a grab for his hair. He wasn't so lucky the second time around.

In his scramble for escape his feet collided with something solid and he felt the ever present feeling of falling to the ground. His head whipped around and he found himself staring at the remains of what used to be someone's arm, now a heavily used chew toy. As Remus rolled away again he condemned himself to a much worse fate.

It was the all too familiar feeling of being violently slammed against the wall with Greyback holding onto him with a death grip.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Greyback wasted no time in striking him again, he did not wait for an answer. "I bet you'd love serving as that fool's fucking pet. You're just dying to go to school, aren't you?"

Remus opened his mouth in order to defend himself, but he was over rode when Greyback's voice reached a new, heightened volume.

"Don't lie to me! I've seen the way you watch the carriages go by ever year, just wishing it were you in there!"

Remus shook his head fervently.

"That's not true, I don't want to be anything like them-"

"Bullshit! You wish it were you gazing up at that fucked up ceiling, don't you? Wish you were the one getting stuck in detention for school boy pranks! Wish you were the one staying up late to do your Charms homework, or worrying about your next Transfiguration test! You wish you were fucking like them! Fucking normal!"

"NO!" Remus' harsh retort surprised even himself. "I don't wanna be anything like that filth! They're pathetic, they're weak, unworthy, powerless!" he stopped, panting heavily, his hands curled into fists at his sides.

"I wanna be like the wolf," the lower ranking werewolf took a shuddering breath. "The wolf is power, the wolf is strong, the wolf is the ultimate predator, the wolf is me."

Slowly, reluctantly, Greyback's hands removed themselves from Remus' slightly trembling body.

"We're one, the wolf and I. He is I and I am him. He makes up for what I lack and I provide the fuel for his raging, burning, wildfire. He is strong. He is powerful. He is feared. He is free. He is me," Remus' whispered chant faded away into the heavy atmospheric night, until not even an echo remained.

Remus broke off the long ago memorized prayer with a deep breath.

"Leave my sight."

Remus didn't answer.

"Be thankful to me."

Remus didn't answer.

"Don't even get any ideas concerning a certain Hogwarts school for fucking normal wizards and mother fucking witches."

Remus didn't answer.

"I want the mutt gone by morning, or help you God," Greyback growled, just to have one more bit in.

Remus didn't answer, he was already halfway across the darkened room, a whispered chant playing on his lips against the soft backdrop of his footsteps.

"We're one, the wolf and I. He is I and I am him. He makes up for what I lack and I provide the fuel for his raging, burning, wildfire. He is strong. He is powerful. He is feared. He is free. He is me."

"We're one, the wolf and I…"

And so it went, his soft words whispering down the dirt walled corridor, hungrily eaten by surrounding nightmares and haunting shadows.

"…He is me."

-

His legs pumped rapidly as he tore across the Atlantic Ocean, his heart pounded madly and his tongue lolled out as he charged recklessly onward. He surged over a rolling wave and saw it in all three feet of its glory.

The green, sausage pizza stood unsuspecting as the water flowed beneath it.

Padfoot's senses flared and his muscles tightened, ready to spring forward and claim his long hunted prize. His paws kneaded the water below him, he crouched low, nose almost touching the rippling surface, and lunged forward.

Padfoot landed atop the pizza and sank his teeth into it, tearing back and forth. The pizza gave a wild screech and attempted to thrash him off.

Haha! You are no match for Padfoot! Predator extraordinaire!

And then he was falling. Darkness swallowed him whole and he was being shaken violently as he flailed in the darkness that completely engulfed him. The dog's legs stopped thrashing and his heavy lids opened slowly, underneath lay a pair of sleep hazy eyes.

It took a moment before he could blink away every last bit of the drossiness. His eyes focused and he scrambled clumsily to his feet, spinning in tight circles to survey his shadow bathed surroundings.

Where the hell am I? Wherever I am I don't think I'm at Hogwarts anymore.

Panic started to overtake him and then his eyes fell on something shaking that lay curled up within the confines of the dozens of warm blankets and everything came rushing back.

The pickpocket. Children. Mutt. Greyback. Colewood. Werewolves.

He started swiftly and silently for the door, figuring if now wasn't a good enough time to escape, then what was? Only three more steps and he'd be out the archway and home free.

He never did get to take those last three steps.

A familiar noise drifted to his ears that made him freeze. Choking, as if someone were trying to hold back their desperate sobs.

His stomach fell at the all too familiar sound. Padfoot stood, undecided between the door that would mean his freedom and returning to investigate the choking sobs. As he thought, head turning from room to door, pictures that had long since haunted him filtered in and out of his mind.

A ten year old boy trying to hold back his tears…

He shook his head and started back across the room, banishing the picture to the depths of his mind. With his nose, Padfoot pushed the folds of the blankets away and crawled inside them. Padfoot pressed himself against the warm and trembling body that he found there. He wormed his way up to the body's face and saw that it was none other then the pickpocket.

Well of course it's him, who else would it be? he thought as he hesitantly curled his canine form around the searing body. I mean it is his, Padfoot paused, thinking back to the dirt walls and the equally dirty floor. Room.

In the morning, he reminded himself as he started to tremble from the force of the other body. I'll leave in the morning. First thing in the morning…

The dog's eye lids drooped and he was surprised at how easily he slipped back into the realm of the living dead.

Beside him, Remus couldn't help but burry his face in the dog's soft fur. A fragmented prayer played on his lips like a broken record.

"We're one the wolf and I…" the dog's paws started to twitch as if chasing some invisible prey, lost to the land of dreams.

"…He is me."

The dog began to snore softly.

-


	5. Chapter 5

Rating of R.

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

"Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards."

-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

Beta read by ErikaDominica2790.

Blood Chronicles.

-

Sirius was used to waking up with the sun's first rays warm on his face, dancing across peacefully sleeping features. The sun was his alarm clock, but when he awoke the next morning, his usual alarm clock was absent. Shadows, not the sun's blazing morning light, skated over his face as he lay engulfed between a green plaid blanket and a dark blue one. His muscle's ached after being confined to such a small space over an extended period of time.

He shrugged the arm that was hugging him possessively around the middle way and burrowed out of the tangle of green, yellow, blue, and red blankets in a number of different patterns.

Wait.

_Green? Yellow, blue, and red?_

_Colors?_

He should not be seeing color. Dog's saw the world in black and white and Padfoot was no exception to that rule. His hands flew to his face, attempting to rub the sleep and color away from his vision.

His…_Hands_?

He blinked slowly, took a deep breath, and held his hands in front of his face for examination. They were, indeed, human hands. Complete with opposable thumbs and five long, if not dirty, fingers.

Sirius' mind was sent racing as his eyes took in not only his new found appendages, but also his transformed body. A faint scream escaped his lips as realization hit him like a ton of bricks. Overnight, while in a state of unconsciousness, Padfoot had changed back into his human counterpart.

Sirius closed his eyes in haste after a quick look at the motionless heap of blankets to change back into the midnight black dog and make his escape. Sirius cleared his mind and concentrated hard on the feeling of toned muscles rippling under a vibrant, think coat. A shiver began to pass softly over his body from crown to sole when a noise broke through his concentration and put an end to his transformation.

"Dog? Yo, rover, where didja go?" a sleepy voice murmured as its owner battled his way out of the jungle of tangled blankets.

Sirius whirled around and glanced alarmingly at the mound of blankets. That one small moment of hesitation cost him his freedom. Remus emerged from his soft prison, blankets twisted around his waist and stared wide eyed at Sirius.

"Who the hell are you?" Remus growled, sleep vanishing from his eyes and scrambling upright on his feet, stance alert and ready to spring.

"Um…housekeeping?"

Remus lunged forward, making a grab for Sirius. Sirius sidestepped clumsily out the door, feeling long fingers brushing over his shoulders and upper arms. He was out the door and down the dirt walled corridor without a second thought, desperately racking his brain to remember the way out of this literal hell hole.

He took the left fork and as he ran he also became painfully aware of the other small dens full of waking werewolves. Three children peered around a wide archway and watched him sprint down the corridor. They whispered among themselves and then trotted off in the opposite direction and into another den further down the hall.

Sirius was breathing heavily and tripped when the ground become more uneven. It became harder to run and it was a second before he reached the incline to the upper level and also the outside world. Mouth dry and heart pounding in his ears, Sirius threw his weight forward and pushed himself to run up the ascent.

The thundering of his own heart was so great that it made him completely oblivious to all the other goings on around him. He became aware of them again when a brutal grip enclosed around his ankle and sent him falling and rolling backwards.

He fell hard on his back when he ceased to roll and felt all the wind leave his lungs. Sterling, silver eyes wide with fear swept across the faces all looking curiously down at him. Among them he saw Remus' own ashen colored face.

It was the last thing he saw before something slammed painfully hard into the back of his head and his world went as black as night.

-

Voices.

He could hear them echoing across the darkness of his mind. They were like the steady rhythm of rain water on a drum and as each second ticked away they grew louder until they were a dueling roar. One thing was for sure, and that was that they were not helping his earthquake of a headache one bit. He groaned and rolled away form the noise, covering his ears in a feeble attempt to block it out.

At his sudden movement the voices stopped suddenly, but they soon started back up until they were so loud that Sirius couldn't ignore them any longer. He dragged his body into a sitting position and glared accusingly at the two people who were the cause of the rude disturbance.

"Do you mind?" he grumbled, running a hand through his hair and wincing when it graced a sore spot in the back. "Hell, what happened to me?"

The two owners of the arguing voices started back up again with new vigor.

"Will you shut the fuck up?" Sirius snapped and fell back to the ground, using his arms as a makeshift pillow. "Some of us are trying to sleep."

A sharp blow from a cruel hand put an end to any other comment that was on his mind. Sirius winced and rolled over.

"Leave him alone." he could recognize Remus' irritated voice.

"What? Got a soft spot for this cock sucking spy, Lupin?" Remus bit his lip.

He didn't have a soft spot for the black haired boy he'd found in his room that morning. How could he, he didn't even know him. But he'd never felt comfortable sitting back and watching other people endure Greyback's abuse. Not when he could do something about it.

"Don't call me that," he spat instead, wheeling away to glare with rancor at the wall. A slow smile stretched at the alpha male's lips until they were pulled back and his teeth flashed in a smirk.

"Ashamed to be called by your own name?"

"That's not my name," Remus' voice was barley above a whisper, his eyelids closed and tensed, hands curled into fists.

"Of course it is, you cannot deny who you are-"

"This is who I am!" his voice rose to a yell and Sirius sat back up. Greyback seemed to be struggling to hide his amused expression. Not that he tried very hard.

"Lupin," Greyback's voice was a teasing, taunting drawl.

"My name is Remus."

He whirled around and his eyes flashed like molten fire. Sirius couldn't believe his eyes when Greyback took a half step backwards. It was a minute before he recovered and the only noise to be heard was Remus' uneven and shaking breathing.

"Don't get off the topic," Greyback snapped, footing regained in the verbal wrestling match. "We're through discussing this-"

"Are we? Where's my say in this? Find someone else to baby sit him, because I am not doing it."

"It's your fault," the alpha male snarled, pacing the room with Remus doing the same opposite him. Sirius' eyes flew between the two of them as if he were watching a tennis rally.

They can't be talking about-

"You're the one who brought him home last night, were you not?" Greyback pointed an accusing finger where Sirius sat unsteadily in the corner.

Well that answers that question.

Remus snorted. "Yeah, because I knew that a stray dog roaming around Hogsmead, that just happened to follow me home, would be able to change into a fucking kid-"

"Excuse me, I'm seventeen!" Sirius said defensively. "Older then you are. How old are you? Fifteen? Sixteen?"

"Seventeen actually," he answered without stopping or turning to face the speaker because that would have meant letting his guard down. And any vital second Greyback got, he'd use to his advantage. "Why can't we keep him locked up?" this question he directed to Greyback.

"And just where would we lock him up?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot that you're not smart enough to think of that one yourself."

"Just shut up and come here."

Seeing that this was one battle that he was not going to win, Remus walked to stand in front of Greyback and extended his arm. In one quick stride the older werewolf was across the room and yanked Sirius to his feet.

A surprised noise escaped its way out of Sirius' mouth as Greyback roughly maneuvered him to stand side by side with Remus. Remus stood still, if not gritting his teeth, while the other teenager fought with what little strength he had left in his body.

"Hold still, Mudblood," Greyback snapped spitefully, not looking up at Sirius. His attention was instead focused on his forefinger that was slicing down the under side of the boy's arm. Sirius yelped and struggled harder. Remus rolled his eyes.

Mudblood? Is that really the best you can come up with? Well that's rich coming from a half-breed…Remus thought and stood perfectly still as Greyback sliced into the underside of his opposite arm.

Sirius swayed and slumped to the floor, the world spinning in unnatural colors before his eyes.

Greyback bent his head and lapped at the blood pooling out of the slash on the underside of Remus' arm.

"Sorry," he said, not sounding a bit sorry as he stood to his full height again. His lips were stained with blood and his tongue slowly creased sharp teeth. "Couldn't resist. You always did have such sweet blood-"

"Can we finish this already? I don't want to spend a minute more than I have to in your company, however lovely it may be."

Remus was answered with a mocking kiss to his forehead, blood smeared across his skin. It made his heart pound at the thought of tasting it on his own tongue.

While they were distracted Sirius started to crawl towards the door.

C'mon, just a little more…

"And where do you think you're going?" Greyback snarled, rounding quickly and pulling him back roughly by the ankle.

Sirius' fingernails clawed helplessly at the dirty floor as he was first hauled backwards and then upwards. He was maneuvered to stand next to Remus again. By then he was so near to passing out again, what with the combination of his throbbing head and the blood loss, that he didn't have the energy to fight anymore.

When a rapid stream of words reached Sirius' ears, he found his struggling renewed with a new height of vigor.

Their arms were turned outward and pressed together so that the claw slashes matched inch for inch. The words coming out of Greyback's mouth were both beautiful and terrible at the same time.

They were words of magic.

Words of dark magic.

Of powerful, ancient, dangerous, dark magic.

For he should know, they'd studied this very ritual not a week ago in Defense class. He searched his brain, trying to remember what the ritual actually did.

Oh God damn it! What is it? I should have paid better attention instead of turning Snape's shoes into singing pineapples…

Sirius felt his blood pulsing through him, flowing through his veins, could hear it.

Next minute Greyback's sharp tongued Latin died away and it felt as if his blood were boiling. Sirius couldn't remember if he screamed or not, he certainly felt like it. What he did remember was falling to the floor, and Remus collapsed to his knees in a panting heap beside him. Then the searing burning reduced to a distant throbbing and he felt as if he were going to burst, as if there were too much blood coursing through him.

And that was when his brain could remember scratches of his Defense class that he wished he had paid better attention to.

Their blood had mixed. Combined. Joined. Fused as one. It was a bonding spell.

The second time he passed out was for a much different reason then a hard blow to the back of the head.

-

Remus really wished that the other teenager would stop watching him. It was unnerving, not to mention the most annoying thing in existence. He sat within his mound of blankets, an age creased map spread out in front of him and the end of a black ink pen sticking out of the corner of his mouth.

His golden eyes kept flickering from the colored map covered in graffiti, math calculations, names, stick figures, and side notes to himself to where Sirius sat moodily across from him. This went on for another ten minutes. In which of those ten minutes Sirius sighed a total of seven times and Remus added another scribbled note and rotated his pen between his fingers faster and faster until it was a blur.

"Will you go away?" Remus finally snapped, jerking the pen out from between his teeth and slamming it down.

Sirius seemed a bit taken aback by that, after all it had been the first time the other boy had said a word since they'd been bonded. He was starting to think that he had gone mute. Sirius rolled his eyes, stood up and walked the ten feet across the room that the bonding ritual would allow him away from Remus' side.

"Better?" the raven haired asked silkily, crossing his arms and glaring at Remus with piercingly cold eyes.

Remus groaned, circled something on the map and hid his face in his hands.

"I hate you," came the slightly muffled response.

"If I'm really that much trouble then why didn't you just kill me and be done with it?"

"Greyback said it'll be funner this way. And besides, he's just looking for another excuse to make me miserable."

"More fun."

"What?"

"You've never been to school have you?" Sirius asked, picking the dirt out from under his finger nails. "Shows through in your grammar." Sirius had learned to be perfect in the art that was the English language at such a young age in the house of Black.

"Whatever."

A thick silence filled the room, neither party feeling the need to say anymore, and both lost at what else to say. Eventually the pen returned to its former resting place and Remus pondered over the map once more.

"What the hell is that anyway?" Sirius said at length, curiosity finally getting the best of him.

Remus looked up at him briefly with a raised eyebrow and answered with the voice that one normally reserved for a small child.

"A map."

"I can see that," he snapped, uncrossing his arms and striding back across the room again to sit across from Remus.

"Well, obviously you didn't if you had to ask what the hell it was."

"You're a smart ass, the biggest one I've ever met," Sirius sighed tiredly, palming his forehead. "Has any one ever told you that?"

"Regularly, yes," Remus said, attention focused on the map as he scribbled a side note and muttered quietly to himself.

"What I meant to say is what is it for?"

"Normally one used a map to see where something is-"

Never before in his life had Sirius found he got so infuriated simply by talking to someone as he did with Remus. With an impatient sigh he leaned forward and ripped the map out of Remus' grasp and then turned it so that it faced him.

The corner tore at the quick movement and Remus glared daggers. Sirius ignored him as his silver eyes focused on the newly made ink mark. It was a wide and smooth circle around small dot that was labeled as Silverstone.

His brow furrowed in confusion and Sirius wondered what was so great about Silverstone. Why would anyone want to waste their time there? Remus laid down on his back, arms folded behind his head and waited for the inevitable to occur.

He was not surprised when after a minute more Sirius sighed in frustration and asked, "Silverstone? What the hell's so important about Silverstone? There's nothing in Silverstone."

"My dad lives there," Remus replied with a shrug and traced the ceiling with his eyes.

"Visiting them?"

"You could say that."

"What do you mean by 'you could say that?'"

"Because I'm not the one visiting them-"

"But you just said-"

"Technically."

Sirius paused and cursed whoever was up there for bonding him with not only a smart ass and an irritating werewolf but also a confusing one.

"Wait… what?"

"I'm going to see them on Thursday."

"That's in two days."

"Very good," Remus sat up and carefully folded up the well used map before he stowed it away into the front pocket if his backpack. "And now if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."

And going to bed is just what he did.

When Remus lay sound asleep on top of the mismatched covers, Sirius knew for sure that he hated the werewolf he'd been bonded to. For in going to sleep also condemned Sirius to stay in the room because the ritual only permitted them ten feet from one another.

Sirius sighed and sat down in front of the door, the farthest he was allowed from Remus, and rooted through the werewolf's backpack with a hope of finding something to entertain himself with.

He discovered nothing of interest to him but a compass, a half full bottle of water, a green toothbrush that had seen a fair share of teeth, rumpled and unfolded clothes, two bags of Swedish fish, matches, loose pens at the bottom, a water damaged copy of A Tale of Two Cities, and a word find book. He zipped it back up and pushed it away.

I wonder… he thought as he sat with his knees drawn up to his chin and his head resting on top of them. Maybe just maybe.

Sirius closed his eyes and concentrated hard on four legs and a rolling tongue and eyes that saw the world in black and white…a second later, Padfoot stood where Sirius had sat a moment before.

The dog gave a happy yip, shook out his coat, and kneaded the soft ground beneath his padded paws. He lunged forward and managed to take a step further then the bounds would have allowed before. A jolt of hope surged through him and he plunged forward, only to be jerked back by an invisible and unyielding leash.

Padfoot whimpered and clawed at the invisible bonds that held him tight, struggling to get free.

In the end he sloughed back on his hunches and transformed back into a boy to continue his sulking He looked over his shoulder to glare accusingly at the peacefully sleeping form curled on the blankets and at once it became apparent why he'd been allowed that one extra step toward freedom.

In his sleep, Remus had rolled over so that he was a bit closer to the door than before. Sirius groaned and banged his head against the wall behind him.

"Why me? Just why does it have to be me?"

An hour passed in silence, except for Remus' even breathing, the distant sound of children's voices, and the steady drip as water fell somewhere down the hall from the ceiling. In that hour of silence Sirius had come to realize what the connection between Silverstone and two days time was.

And the answer horrified him.

Thursday was the full moon. Remus was planning on going to Silverstone to visit his dad. But not technically going himself.

"Oh, Merlin. Get me out of here."

And then there was nothing but the sound of far away voices, peaceful breathing, dripping water, and his own terrifying conclusion with which to keep him company.

-


	6. Chapter 6

Rating of R

I do not own the character, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards."

-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

I do not know anything about Silverstone, but yes, it really does exist. And yes, it's also located in England. Somewhere. Brownie points for me. I do not even know if they have mushrooms in England, I think they do, but I don't know what kinds. It's the scenario that just fits, so it's staying. One of my favorite chapters waits ahead, happy reading.

Blood Chronicles

-

Forty-eight hours, a full forty-eight hours and Sirius had still not returned from his gut feeling mission.

"Well," James Potter whispered into the darkness of the empty dorm room. "I guess your stupid gut feeling was really right."

Ever since Sirius had been an hour late James had been pulling his hair out for all the worrying. Scratch that, he'd been worrying ever since his trouble making friend had left.

"Should have gone with him, what ever made me let him go alone?" James moaned and hid his face in his hands.

And now, after forty-eight hours had come to pass he'd been left with no other choice but to report Sirius' disappearance to the headmaster. Dumbledore had regarded him with time weary eyes and James answered all of his questions truthfully. Except the one concerning why Sirius had gone out in the first place.

James didn't think it a very good idea to tell the old headmaster that the reason Sirius was missing was because he was trying to hunt down a pickpocket who'd relieved him of fifty gallons.

"Padfoot, you idiot," he laughed weekly into his pillow. "I'm sorry buddy. Sorry that the last conversation we had was over whether or not your gut feelings were reliable or not. Just get home in one piece, you stupid moron."

-

The night sky, any night sky, whether it be cloudy or clear, dotted with stars or void of them always reminded him of Silverstone.

Remus lay in the middle of a clearing on his back, arms crossed behind his head and watched as the sun slowly sank beyond the horizon. He turned his head and saw where Sirius was, unmoving and on his side, ten feet away from him. A sigh escaped unbidden and Remus let his eyes wander over the first few stars that had already made an appearance in the quickly fading light of the sky.

The other werewolves had already left with Greyback earlier that morning, heading East. And Remus…He'd always been more of a lone wolf and had never run with the pack since his fourth full moon.

It was much better to be in charge of himself without the bossy and deadly, charcoal wolf pushing him around. As his eyes continued to glide over the top of the trees, his mind also started to wander to chambers long ago locked tight and water sealed. Golden eyes mindlessly took in the blossoming trees and setting sun, but he wasn't really seeing them.

Because while his eyes traveled the darkening landscape his mind thought of Silverstone.

-

FLASHBACK

"Dad, can we go mushroom hunting?" the six-year-old boy with the grass stained blue jeans and tousled caramel hair asked the man sitting across the handmade oak table.

"Mushrooms aren't up yet, Rem," his dad answered from behind the Daily Prophet.

"Yeah they are, I seen some yesterday when I was up the back road," Remus told him, stirring his cereal around his bowl with a plastic handled spoon.

He chewed on his lower lip when he remembered that he wasn't even allowed to go up the back road behind they're house.

"Up the back road, were you?" his dad asked, eyeing him sternly over the top of his paper.

"I wasn't that far in," the little boy said quickly, fumbling to fix the mess he'd gotten himself into.

The older man sighed, folded his paper and set it down on the table.

"I don't want you going back there, your too little-" John started wearily.

"Tad's been going up the back road since he was five!" Remus sulked, remembering the adventures his best friend, Tad, had told him about the steep and dangerous road that ran up a hill behind their house and into the woods.

"Not by himself he hasn't. And besides, there are all sorts of nasty things back there. Snakes and-"

"That was only one time!" the child said defensively. How are you supposed to explain to a three-year-old child who was helping his dad pick up sticks in the yard not to pick up the ones that moved?

"Son, stop pretending," his dad sighed. "You're not well, you know it as well as I do-"

"I'm fine," Remus muttered, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. "What if I show you that the mushrooms are up? Then can we pick 'em?"

"Well…I've got a lot to do today…"

"Okay then I'll pick them and bring 'em back here to you."

John rubbed his forefinger and thumb on either side of the bridge of his nose. This was one thing that his only child, only son and only last member of his family, was not going to let go of very easily. And…what could a walk up the back road in search of mushrooms that weren't there really hurt?

"You can," Remus' face lit up with joy and he scrambled out of the high-backed chair, his breakfast already long forgotten. "But," not even the stern word could make him pause as he slipped a worn trainer onto his right foot. "I don't want you going past the first gate and I want you to take Lucy with you."

"That's bullshit!" Remus called from the door where he hopped around on one foot while pulling his second shoe on.

"Remus John-"

"What? Bullshi-p. I said bullshi-p!" his head poked around the back hallway's archway with the most innocent expression on his face. "Tad and Stella never had to take their dog."

John shrugged and lit the end of a cigarette. "That's fine by me, don't go. The less I need to worry."

"I'll take the dog," he grumbled on his way out the door, newly emptied backpack slung over his shoulders with which he'd carry the mushrooms in.

"Lucy! C'mon, Lu!" Remus called with both hands cupped around his mouth.

He only had to wait a minute before a large, long haired, black and white collie came tearing down the hillside. She vaulted the creek at the bottom of the hill and ran up to him with her tongue lolling out to the side of her.

She raced up to him full speed and didn't stop until her enormous front paws made contact with his chest. They tumbled together into the lush dew soaked grass and Lucy assaulted his face with her warm tongue.

"Lu! Lu, stop!" Remus giggled and pushed weakly against her body. After she was certain that her tongue had not missed an inch of his face, Lucy stood up and shook out her coat of long fur.

"Now c'mon," he panted, the light play already steeling the breath from his lungs, climbed to his feet and ran his hands through his tousled caramel hair. "We're going mushroom hunting."

The collie's ears pricked forward and she trotted on a bit ahead of him up the steep, rocky back road. Remus chased after her, following Lucy's well chosen path until the red, rusted gate that marked as far as he could go came into sight. By the time he got to the barbwire gate Remus already had a hand full of snow white mushrooms.

"There," he panted matter-of-factly. "I told him that the mushrooms were up, didn't I, Lu?" Remus turned his head left and right in search of the salt and pepper dog.

To the left lay an empty gravel and clay road, the same could be seen on his right. There was no sign of Lucy anywhere.

"Lu?" he spun around in a tight circle, looking for any sign of the Lupin's beloved farm dog. "Lu, where are you?"

A grounded branch beyond the barbwire fence snapped and set him whirling around. Leaves rustled and then all fell silent. Remus approached the fence line that separated the uneven road from the downward slopping forest where the sheep and cattle roamed.

He held his breath and waited for another reverberation. When none reached his ears he turned away and started back up the road at a much slower pace.

It was probably just a fox or something. Now where did that dumb dog go? Dad'll kill me if I come back without her, he'll think I went back here by myself! God forbid, he thought and rolled his eyes.

Two more steps forward and there was another, much louder and closer, crack as a branch snapped in two. Remus whirled around, his six-year-old mind racing with the thought of all sorts of horrible things.

It's a black bear, or a wolf, or maybe a mountain lion, or a-

"Lucy?"

What he had not expected to bound out of the thicket was friendly old Lucy, the Lupin's sheep dog. She shook the loose dirt, dead and decaying autumn leaves, and twigs from her long coat and then squeezed through a gap in the barbwire fence. Lucy trotted up to her stunned companion and sat down on her haunches, hackles pulled back in a good natured grin.

"Don't do that, you scared me," he scolded and hugged her around the neck. Her bushy tail thumped against the ground in an apology and off she cantered. Stride never braking as she ran down the road, right on past the red gate. Remus ran after the fleeting dog, but he came to a dead stop when his feet brought him level with the gate. Lucy just kept cantering at her ease, rounding the bend in the road that he'd never seen beyond before.

"Come back, Lucy! We're not allowed to go past the first gate!" he yelled after her, pointing a finger at the very gate that he wasn't allowed to pass.

The rest of the words died on his lips, never meant to reach the ears of others, when he saw the gate in question.

The rusted, red gate that had never before been open in his memory now stood wide open, its lock snapped cleanly in two and was coiled on the ground like a great steel serpent.

Open? But why is it- Remus thought as he approached it, careful not to touch any of the wire incase it was electric charged.

MUSHROOMS!

When Remus reached the head of the gate and looked down the path marked with old tire tracks he found a whole path of white and black mushrooms just waiting to be picked. He couldn't wait to show his dad.

Left and right he looked. The right was as empty as always and at the bend to the left he could just make out Lucy sniffing at a patch of crab grass.

"Besides," he whispered to himself. "I'm not going past the gate, just through it."

With that said he felt much better as he picked his way down the tire track path to the mushrooms that wait below. Lucy yipped and raced down the hill ahead of him. Remus couldn't help but smile.

He loved Lucy, almost more then anyone else in the whole world. Sometimes it seemed as if she were the only one that wouldn't yell at him for doing something even slightly dangerous. The overly excited collie circled around the nearest tree trunk and sniffed every blade of grass her nose could touch.

Remus shrugged his backpack to the ground, unzipped it, and started to root out the full grown mushrooms. He'd only picked eight of them when a long, royal blue shadow fell across him. He looked up slowly, green eyes taking in the appearance of the man that stood in front of him, casting a shadow over him and his mushroom patch.

"Hello, Remus," the man said kindly, a small smile pulling awkwardly at the corner of his lips.

"Hi," the little boy hesitantly said. He stood up and wiped his dirty hands on his jean clad thighs. "How do you know my name?"

"Well doesn't everyone?" the strange man asked, dark brows furrowed.

"No," Remus answered with a seconds thought. "They mostly only know the other kids' names."

"Do they? Well that's not very nice."

Remus noticed how cold his eyes seemed in the soft light streaming through the gap in the canopy of trees overhead.

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

The man looked slightly taken aback by that.

"Stranger? Oh no, my dear boy, I am no stranger," he chuckled. "Why I live here in the hills, I'm a neighbor of yours, in fact, a good friend of your father, too."

Remus opened his mouth but at that moment something flashed past him in a colorless blur and ran head first into the stranger who was not really a stranger because he was a neighbor who lived in the hills and also knew his father.

Lucy, the soft natured farm dog, snarled and growled as she snapped and clawed at the man with the golden eyes and camouflage tee-shirt. He fell and they rolled together in a tangle of fur, flailing limbs, and snapping teeth into the winding creek a few feet off.

Remus scrambled behind a large tree, eyes wide, his mushrooms completely forgotten. There was a resounding crack and the sheep dog crawled out of the rocky creed bed and bolted for cover under a fallen tree. Her amber eyes leered out at the man as he climbed out of the water and shook his head like a dog did its soaking coat.

"Lu?" Remus called in a trembling voice that was barley above a whisper.

His eyes darted from Lucy's glowing eyes to the man coming back toward him.

"Remus? Remus, are you still there? It's alright, you've got a very good dog there, very protective."

He opened his mouth to respond but found that the words would not come out. They did the second time.

"Yeah."

The man cursed quietly and stripped his dripping shirt over his head.

"You still there?" Remus nodded. "Hello?"

"Yeah."

"Then why don't you come out?" Remus shrugged and was really starting to wish he'd never went through the red, rusted, barbwire fence. "Remus?"

"Dunno."

He laughed as he wrung out his shirt and threw it over a low hanging tree branch to dry.

"I wont bite, I promise."

"You promise?"

There was a moment of dead silence where all that could be heard was the soft rushing of water over a rock bed, the sound of birds singing to one another in all different scales and pitches, and the rustle of autumn leaves as tiny wild life went about they're lives.

The man with the water gleaming on his skin out right roared with laughter.

"I promise, Remus, I promise," he chuckled and waited until the small boy stepped out from behind the tree trunk. Then, at last he did, arms crossed in a standing fetal position.

"Oh, don't be like that."

Remus' hands never left their place and he bent to shoulder his backpack, only taking his weary eyes off the other man long enough to find the zipper and zip it up.

"Would you like to come home with me?"

Remus' head snapped up, one-hundred-one things running through his head about what is dad would say about his going home with a strange man he'd met in the woods.

"My dad wouldn't like that-"

"Don't worry about him," he waved the rest of Remus' sentence away with a flick of his hand. "We're good friends, he wouldn't mind if I barrowed you for a bit."

His head flew from where the stranger stood to the road beyond the gate. But he'd always been taught that it was impolite to refuse a grown up.

"How far is it?" he asked at last.

"Not too far."

Remus answered after a minute of hesitation. "Okay…But only for a minute. I don't think my dad would like it if I were gone too long."

"We'll call him when we get there, if you'd like," he said off handedly while grabbing his shirt and slinging it over his shoulder and led their strange trio deeper into the woods.

Remus tagged along behind him and Lucy shot to his heels faithfully. Her ears lay flat on her head and Remus threaded his fingers, as a source of comfort, through her mane of thick fur.

The man had not been mendacious when he said that his house wasn't that far away. House wouldn't be the word that Remus would use to describe the one room shack, but he kept to himself when they arrived about ten minutes later.

"Well, here we are," he said, opening the unsteady door noiselessly and stepped aside to allow his guests to enter.

Remus walked into the dirty, weakly sun lit, single room shack with a strange feeling that he couldn't place in the pit of his stomach. Lucy still followed, eyes flickering over to where the man stood beside the door.

Remus didn't see as he pulled his lips back in a silent snarl at Lucy.

They sat in the man's tiny house for a long time, sat there for so long that the sun had already started to go down. The man, who had introduced himself as Fenrir, and Remus sat at a battered coffee table made just for two and Lucy sat in the corner behind Remus, her muscles tense and eyes alert. They talked little about everything under the sun and drank cold tea out of Styrofoam cups.

"You're sick, aren't you, Remus?" Fenrir asked with the air of someone inquiring about the weather.

He drained his cup and set it down on the water ringed table. Remus rotated his cup around in his cupped hands, mind flashing back to brightly lit hospital rooms and his grandmother sobbing at his bedside while his father attempted to hold back tears simply for her benefit.

A long pause followed as Remus thought of the genetic disease that was eating him alive from the inside out. It left him weaker and weaker with every passing day, and was the reason his dad was so overprotective.

His mother had had it, and while being pregnant with him, had unknowingly passed it onto her only son. The birth left her too weak and she died shortly after he had been born, leaving her son with the same incurable wizarding disease that would slowly ware his defenses down until there was nothing left.

"Yeah."

An even longer pause followed.

"What if I told you I could make it better?"

Remus looked up at Fenrir sharply, cup slipping slightly and mouth slack. He shook his head. All the doctors, all eighteen of them, had all said that he'd be sick and would never be able to run and play like the other children, that there was slim chance he'd survive the next winter, and…

"You can't."

"But I can."

"How?" Remus asked, half accusing, half curious, all hoping.

"I'm a wizard-"

"So am I."

"But you don't understand, I am much, much more powerful than any normal wizard.

"My dad's powerful," Remus shrugs.

"I'm stronger."

"Nup."

"Yep."

"Prove it."

Fenrir took a deep breath, there was a reason, a very good reason, why he tried so hard to keep away from six-year-olds. They could send a person, sane or otherwise, running upside down on any wall.

"I will," he said patiently through gritted teeth with an overly large, false smile.

"Now," Remus challenged defiantly, arms crossed smugly, and promptly forgetting everything his dad had ever taught him about how to treat an adult. "If you're so great then make me better right this second."

"You'll have to wait another ten minutes," Fenrir's golden eyes drifted to the dirty glass window and the pale sky that characterized a setting sun beyond it.

"Why?"

Fenrir really did hate how small children had to ask questions about everything.

"Because," he really didn't want to deal with a six-year-old's logic, or lack thereof. "It only works when the sun goes down."

"Oh," Remus paused, eyes also drifting to the window. "Well, the sun's down now."

"No it's not."

"Yes huh."

"Not yet."

"I'm telling you, it is."

"Listen kid, I think I'd know a bit better then you would-" and then he broke off and Remus was still looking out the window at the quickly darkening say, and all the hairs on Lucy's back stood on end.

Then Fenrir didn't need to look out the window to see if the moon was rising, he only needed to feel it running wild and sweet through his blood.

Remus looked back over his shoulder at the sound of a body hitting the floor. Never before in his life had he seen something as terrifying and hypnotic as a werewolf transformation.

It only lasted a span of about two minutes. Where a man had stood a minute before a wolf with leering golden eyes now lay. Those haunting eyes landed on Remus and their owner rose slowly to his feet, senses adjusting and eyes rolling.

Lucy was the first to react.

Like she had to the man in the woods, she sprang forward, rolling the wolf over until they crashed into the far wall and caused the shack to shudder.

Remus stood transfixed by their battle.

They sprang apart, spittle flying from gapping mouths, claws kneading the soft floor beneath velvet covered paws. The wolf lunged forward again and everything was over in a matter of seconds. The great black wolf took his domesticated kin by the throat and sent her screaming until she could not scream any more.

Her bloodstained body rolled away into the consuming shadows.

The wolf approached his next prey with dramatic slowness. He stopped a foot in front of him and snapped his jaws. Remus rose his left arm shakily and placed it in front of the giant wolf's nose.

"Please."

The words left his lips in a trembling whisper, tears hidden. Images of how proud his dad would be when Remus came out of the woods with not only a backpack of mushrooms but also with a cure for his deadly plague raced through his mind.

"Please make me better. I don't want to hurt anymore. I don't want to be sick. Help me. I don't want to listen to Daddy crying over me anymore-"

The wolf's teeth clamped shut around his wrist and put an end to his pleading. It was highly disappointed when the little boy didn't scream. Instead he stumbled away and fainted after one look at the blood flowing from the teeth punctures.

The black wolf rose his head and bayed a single, lonely note to the welcoming night and his new pack member.

-

The next morning John Lupin scouted up and down the entire back road as he had since two o' clock the day before, looking everywhere for his son.

"Remus! Remus, this isn't funny! Come on out!"

He stopped when he felt something squish beneath his boots. John lifted up his foot and plucked a cone white mushroom out of the ground and twirled it between his thumb and forefinger.

"Well, I'll be damned. Rem wasn't lying when he said the mushrooms were up."

END FLASHBACK

Thinking back to his fateful night in the Silverstone countryside Remus laughed.

"You liar," he whispered as he watched the moon slowly climb into the sky. "You promised me that you wouldn't bite."

And then the moon reached its peek and Remus need not to worry about talking any longer.

-


	7. Chapter 7

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards."

-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin, was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

Blood Chronicles

-

Sirius searched his brain as the moon rose higher and higher for one last time before it reached its peek for all the details he'd ever learned about werewolves in class. He paled as he realized that the words 'extremely dangerous' 'avoid at all coats' and 'mindless monsters' had never failed to come up.

He was brought swiftly back to reality when a scream a cocktail of pain and release sent him changing forms before the transformation even had a chance to complete. It wouldn't be that bad if he could run away, but the blood bond held just as true to Smoke and Padfoot as it had to Remus and Sirius.

By the time his own quick, painless transformation was over, the werewolf's was only half way through. It didn't matter how many times he'd seen it before, it was still the single most worst sight he'd ever laid eyes on.

His silver eyes locked and he found that it didn't matter how bad he longed to look away because he couldn't. The enormous wolf gave a last twisted, half human scream and then all traces of its human counterpart vanished completely.

Padfoot expected him to collapse after such a painful experience, but the wolf shook his head and braced himself on sturdy legs. Smoke didn't waste any time getting used to his body and new, more sensitive, senses. He picked up a smooth gated trot and set off.

Right toward the rooted to the spot black dog.

Padfoot's insides froze and he braced himself for when the wolf pounced. He felt utterly dumbfounded when Smoke swept straight past him without a second glance.

Confused, the dog turned to watch him heading south into the thick woods. He cocked his head and felt an invisible leash tugging him after Smoke. With a sigh he followed, still careful to keep his distance from the wolf. He didn't get it, he just didn't get it.

Had all the teachers been wrong? Had the books been wrong? Had all the experts been wrong when they'd said werewolves were vicious beasts that would tare you limb from limb just because they could? It certainly looked that way.

They loped right through the streets of Hogsmead and all the werewolf did was twitch his ears this way and that to listen to what was going on around them.

There were even people out, going about with their active night lives and such and Smoke didn't even bat an eye at them. Padfoot felt nervous as all eyes turned to watch their romp down the street, although Smoke got most of the attention. He wasn't complaining one way or another. But he was so calm that they felt reassured that he couldn't be what all thought he was. If only they knew how right they were.

The two canines shot out of Hogsmead and into the opposite end of the forest. For a moment Padfoot feared that the werewolf was going to breeze through Hogwarts. But they passed that too, and Smoke paid it just as much attention as he had Hogsmead.

Slowly, the dog became more confident. Within a matter of feet he was loping side by side with Smoke. He still got no reaction out of the large wolf.

Well, I'll be, he's as harmless as a puppy! He snorted and shot ten feet ahead of his harmless leader.

Harmless was a word to be reconsidered.

As soon as Padfoot's shoulder passed his own, Smoke lunged forward, sank his claws into the dog's hindquarters, hauled him to the ground and then leapt onward again to run on. His stride never broke.

Padfoot whimpered as he ran, his shoulder now level with the wolf's hindquarters. They ran for what seemed like forever, the wolf never breaking his stride and Padfoot never daring to take one step further than Smoke did.

God, is this boring. Is this what they do in their free time? Just run and run and run and run and-

Padfoot had to slam on the breaks in order to prevent from running past the wolf when he stopped on a dime at the top of a bare hill.

Damn! Buddy, you really need to get a life. Let me tell you, there is a lot more to life other then running forever and then stopping suddenly just to scare the living shit outta me.

Panting, he looked to where Smoke stood. The wolf's golden eyes glided over the valley scarcely dotted with lights below. Padfoot's gaze joined his.

What the hell's so important about- Padfoot's train of thought broke off as the wolf's keen eyes focused on a small pinprick of light on the other side of the valley.

It was the only light for mile around it. The dog gulped as best it could and eyed the wolf wearily.

Silverstone.

-

Well if it isn't my ol' home sweet home. Smoke's eyes briefly flickered form his childhood home to the dumbstruck dog that stood beside him.

Smoke snorted and pawed the ground.

Stupid asshole doesn't know, does he? Christ, you've got to be kidding me! I thought for sure he'd know what the eyes meant…Obviously not…What do they teach him in these schools? Glad I never went, better off without them.

He fell into a deep brood before a flickering light in the distance brought him out of his thoughts.

Right, stay on track. I'm here for one thing and one thing only. And that's to pay my dear old dad a visit. Maybe I'll ask him if we can go mushroom hunting before I kill him.

Smoke glanced up at the full moon that the clouds dare not hide from him. A long, angst filled note ripped through the air. The dog startled violently.

How appropriate, a full moon on the anniversary of my bite, the anniversary to the very first day of my real life.

His eyes fell on the glowing light in the distance and his gaze turned to electric ice.

I bet your fucking celebrating, aren't you, you mother fucking bastard.

Smoke snapped his teeth smartly together and out of the corner of his eye he saw the other canine back away.

You've probably busted out the expensive wine, haven't you, Dad? In there saying 'It was a whole eleven years ago today that I finally got rid of that weak little runt. He was so worthless I couldn't even pay the orphanage to take him off my hands.

His body started trembling with rage and Padfoot had good sense to back away all that the blood bond would allow him.

Sick? Sick am I? I was under your care while I was so sick! You told me I'd never get better-

Smoke growled and his muzzle bunched to show two rows of dagger sharp teeth, spittle flying from his mouth like a rabid dog and the hair on his back bristled.

Well, guess what, Dad!? You. Were. WRONG! I'm better! I found the cure! The cure that you said didn't exist! You selfish bastard, you knew I could get better but you didn't want me to get better! I'm better off without you and your fucking normal life-

He broke off with a furious howl and leapt from the top of the hill to the very bottom. His muscles bunched and he shot like a rocket for the old farmhouse. Smoke's claws tore at the soft underfoot as he ran straight for the house that was growing larger by the second in the distance. He could hear the sound of thundering footfalls behind him, but his path stayed straight and true.

Ready or not here I come.

As easily as if he were jumping a four inch span creek, the wolf vaulted the five foot wooden fence that separated the road from the yard.

-

Not a clear thought could pass through Padfoot's mind besides God damn is he fast.

He threw his weight forward and put in an extra surge of speed to catch up with Smoke. He was surprised when after a few quick strides he caught up with the lean muscled wolf. He recognized the upcoming house as the one the wolf's eyes had been fixed on for the past three minutes.

But that means… Padfoot trailed off as a towering, strong fence stood between them and the house. Well at least it'll take some time to get around that-

But Padfoot was forced to swallow his words of thought when Smoke gathered himself and bounded over the five foot fence.

Here goes nothing.

With a moments hesitation Padfoot was over the top too, stumbling for footing on the landing. When his footing regained he charged on, ignoring the way pain shot up his fore legs.

Damn, should've stuck my dismount…

What his eyes saw but his mind didn't want to believe horrified him to the core and made his blood run cold. The wolf was in a raging charge toward a man whose full attention was directed on a bronze telescope.

He was unaware of the fast approaching danger that moved as quickly and silently as a midnight shadow. Padfoot's stomach dropped like a stone.

Smoke gathered himself for his fatal leap, but the dog was one step ahead of him.

Smoke leapt and the great, shaggy dog collided with him in midair. They tumbled to the ground, fighting for blood when Smoke's victim finally took notice. The man drew his wand quickly and bolted for the door in one motion. He paused in the doorway and turned slightly.

"Thank you," he whispered to the black dog that hauled the wolf back by the scruff of his neck and sent him fleeing into the mountains.

John Lupin's green eyes locked with Padfoot's in silent gratitude before the dog fled after the wolf.

-

They next morning couldn't come earlier for Padfoot. Since the wolf had been denied his prey he sought to take out his anger on several small towns on the way back to the den in Hogsmead.

And because Padfoot had no desire to see a whole town full of people turned into kibble for a werewolf they got in a numerous amount of more dog fights. What he would find useful later that night was that the bond worked both ways. Smoke could contain him just as easily as he could contain Smoke.

That could have been a lot more help if I'd known that sooner. He thought and snapped at Smoke's heels to keep him on the right path.

The wolf growled and again they were sent rolling on the ground and snapping at one another's throats. Padfoot never thought he'd be so happy to see the den in the woods behind Hogsmead as he was when he did.

He herded the wolf inside with difficulty and by the time he had managed Smoke was already starting to transform back.

Padfoot kept his eyes averted to the ground this time, not wanting to be hypnotized, and kept them trained on the ground still when Remus pulled himself awkwardly to his two feet and grabbed at the pajama pants he'd left there before they'd left so he'd have something to change into.

It seemed to take him longer to get used to two feet and his human body than it had taken him to get used to four feet and a wolf's body.

Almost as if he's a werehuman, not a werewolf…he thought as Padfoot also melted back into his human counterpart, minus the pain and strangled screams.

On their slow, and unsteady on Remus' part, walk back down the winding corridor neither said a word about what had happened that night. Remus ducked into the dinning den, as Sirius now called it in his head, and grabbed a large bowl he'd put under a hot cloth before they'd left.

They continued down the hall into Remus' own sleeping quarters, the cloak of silence still heavy on their shoulders.

If his room would have had a door Remus would have slammed it so hard that it'd be bouncing off its hinges. Instead he had to settle for slamming the bowl of chicken soup on the stout legged desk that stood faithfully next to the archway.

He began pacing the room, hands curling and uncurling into fists in his hear and his breathing quick. He didn't speak.

"Angry much?" Sirius broke the ringing silence.

A second later he wished he hadn't.

Those two words alone unleashed a demon unlike anything he'd seen. It far outstripped the wolf of the night before.

"YOU!" Remus whirled on him, eyes gold and over bright with fury. It was then, not the night before, that they looked so wolfish, so feral, and so dangerous. "Do you realize what you've done? You've-" his voice was a growl, a pure deadly growl from the back of his throat.

It was exactly how Sirius had pictured what Smoke would sound like, if he could speak.

"Saved a hell of a lot of innocent lives from you're full moon rampage?' he snapped, temper finally snapping after being challenged like he was. "Yeah, I know."

"You had no right to do what you did-"

"I had every right!" Sirius' voice contrasted harshly against Remus' quit, cold anger. "If I hadn't you'd have killed that man."

"My Father would have gotten his pay worth."

"How can you say that? He didn't even do anything to you!"

Silence blanketed again and for a minute Sirius thought that Remus had been turned to stone. He didn't move, didn't blink, he didn't even seem to breathe.

"You don't have to do that you know," he whispered, crossing the room to look at himself in a cracked mirror, eyes fixed on Remus' reflection's turned back. "You don't have to tare people to shreds. You don't have to live up to the reputation that people build for you. You can be good." Sirius felt young, younger than his seventeen years. He felt as if Tyler had just spoken through him. It was the exact kind of philosophy that Tyler sported.

Remus snorted and moved so that Sirius had to reposition himself to still keep him in his sight in the mirror.

"Good? Tell me what exactly is good?" he paused and when Sirius offered no answer continued, the anger drained when Sirius' voice dropped in volume. "How many stories have you heard where the wolf is good?" he ticked off titles on his fingers. "Little Red Riding Hood, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Three Little Pigs…Must I name more?"

"But those are just stories. You're a human not a-"

"Yeah? So what do you care if I'm a real, live, breathing big bad wolf, huh?"

"Dunno…I just…you have a choice."

"I know, and I've made mine," Remus said lightly, wincing as he lay down on his blankets, blood seeping into them and tainting them even more.

"You should get those healed."

"So should you," he nodded his head at Sirius without looking at him to refer to the slashed and battered shape the other boy was in as well.

"Oh, yeah well," Sirius shrugged it off, his hand automatically reaching to his belt for his wand. His fingers closed around thin air. "Right, don't have that anymore…"

"Nome, I do," Remus said through gritted teeth as he wrapped himself up with a dry cloth and used a damp wash cloth to clean his injures with.

Sirius opened his mouth but Remus beat him to it.

"I don't need your help."

He watched as the post-moon werewolf finished bandaging himself up and then his eyes wondered to the still steaming bowl of soup on the desk.

God that smells so good and I haven't eaten anything in three days…I'm so hungry I could eat a whole hippo all by myself…

At that moment, his stomach also decided to voice its need for food as well. Both boys looked at Sirius' stomach in unison and then, together, their eyes flew to the soup on the desktop. Remus pulled himself to his feet and walked uncertainly across the room and picked up the bowl.

Sirius felt his stomach growl again and silently cursed his body for having a mind of its own. His tongue poked out to wet his lips when Remus stirred the steaming broth around with the spoon.

"You want this?" he asked, ladling out a spoonful and then letting it splash back into the bowl. Sirius nodded, took a step forward, and cursed his body and its mind of its own again.

"You hungry?"

"Yeah."

He took three more steps toward the out held bowl.

"Do you really want it?" Remus stirred the broth at a teasingly slow rate with his fingers and than sucked them one by one into his mouth.

"Please, I'm so hungry," Sirius spoke his mind and it was then that he was quite certain that he was going to slowly and painfully murder his body and its mind.

"Then come and get it."

Remus held it out to Sirius and then, just when he made a grab for it, yanked it back.

"Oops…Well, you should have thought of that before!" His voice started quiet and ended in a yell.

Remus gulped down the soup and set the empty bowl back down on the desk.

"Well…I'll tell you one thing, you certainly missed one hell of a chicken soup. 'Night."

And so he turned with a self satisfied smirk on his lips and crawled into the folds of his blankets, ready to go to bed even though the rest of the world was just getting up.

Sirius stared for a full minute at the empty and still warm bowl before he pulled the blanket Remus was sleeping on out from under him, the werewolf made a muffled protesting noise in the back of his throat, and made himself a bed ten feet away from him.

"I hate you."

"I hate you, too," came Remus' dry response before both were out faster then you could say Quidditch.

-


	8. Chapter 8

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"Greyback specialized in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

This is a short chapter, but it's also a nice break. Another thing, I'm replying to y'alls reviews, yet I don't kown if you're getting them. Next time you review, just drop me a line saying you got it. If not then I'll start including that part with my chapters. Thanks.

Pafoof-lol, hey bitch, what's up?

Blood Chronicles

-

For an entire day they slept on undisturbed. 

The other werewolves had learned to ignore Sirius, not that he was complaining about it. So when they finally awoke and left to join the others for dinner Sirius wasn't bothered when they didn't say a word to him. The two boys sat around the table, Greyback and a few of his inner circle boasted about their midnight kill. 

When Greyback smirked and leaned across the table to inquire how Remus' night had gone the boy stood abruptly and left, food forgotten. Sirius trailed behind, munching on a ripe yellow apple he refused to leave behind.

"I hate him, hate him, hate him, hate him, hate him, I hate him!" he chanted over and over until they swept into the familiar den once more.

This place is becoming like my second home or something…after Hogwarts of course. Sirius thought and watched as his capture paced in a number of tight circles, turned sharply on his heal, and then punched the wall. 

Some of the loose dirt crumbled to the floor and a deafening crack followed.

Remus jumped back as if stung and grasped at his limp and throbbing arm. All of his knuckles were broken and bloody. He cradled his arm and couldn't help it when a tear crept down his cheek. He bit his lip so as a sob would not join it.

"Damn, that hurt."

Sirius rolled his eyes, crossed the room and took Remus' hand in his own.

"No shit it hurt, Einstein," he muttered, turning his hand left and right to examine it. "You punched a solid wall."

"I know that," the tawny haired snapped in a chocked voice and ripped his hand away, wincing at the jerking motion.

"Someone needs some major anger management," Sirius muttered, hand reaching for his wand, only to come up empty again. "Right…I keep on forgetting about that little problem."

Remus shook his head mutely and, as if to prove it, drew it out of his back pocket. Sirius grinned at what Moody would say about that.

"You shouldn't keep that in your back pocket."

"Why?"

"Never mind…" he trailed off, eyes lingering on the twelve inch mahogany that had served him so well over the past seven years, as Remus slipped it back into his pocket. 

He never knew how much he relied on it until it was gone and without it he felt so naked, so exposed, so vulnerable.

"You know, I have this wonderful counselor if you ever wanna talk about things."

Remus' head snapped up and the words 'you have got to be kidding me' were written all over his face. His face looked so genuine terrified that Sirius burst out laughing.

"Kidding! I'm just kidding!" he gasped and regained control of himself with a little bit of difficulty. "You should have seen the look on your face…I mean honestly, me? Go see a nut case who'll make me lie down and talk about my mother?"

Remus smiled sheepishly and something resembling a blush crept across his face. "Shut up, for a second there I thought I was bonded to some crazy fuck who needs metal help."

"I don't know about crazy, but I have heard that I'm a good fuck more than once."

Remus smacked him upside the head. His palm brushed over raven soft hair and he stumbled back with a yelp, holding onto his injured hand.

"Not something…I…cared to….know…" he gasped and broke off with a low whimper.

"Here let me-"

"No." Remus darted out of his reach.

"Look, if you'd just hold still I could fix that."

"So now you've got some kind of amazing healing powers?"

"No," Sirius sighed, running a hand through his hair. "But I do have magic." 

Remus' eyes flew to his back pocket where he could just make out the tip of Sirius' wand.

"Yes, wand equals magic."

"Shut up, I'm not stupid."

"Then let me fix your damn hand already."

Remus bit his lip, gaze wavering from Sirius to the wand in his pocket to his broken and bleeding knuckles. 

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"Dunno, but if you want those fixed then you're gonna have to."

"How do I know that as soon as I give you it you're not gonna kill me and do a runner?"

"Blood bond." 

And upon saying those two words, Sirius knew without a shadow of a doubt that even with his wand that he wasn't going to get out anytime soon.

"You wont hurt me?" 

It was then that Sirius finally looked up. He'd never head a voice sound that young and innocent before. Except once. He recognized it as his own voice. The voice he adopted in his father's study.

"Nah, I wont hurt you, but it may sting a bit."

"I think I can deal with a little stinging," he smiled weakly and then did something that Sirius never thought he'd do. 

He handed over the twelve inch mahogany.

The moment he felt the familiar wood in the palm of his hand Sirius felt a magic like nothing comparable surge through his veins. He felt so happy that he was sure he could create the world's best Patronus. Sirius smiled. That didn't sound like too bad an idea.

One muttered incantation later and a great silver dog was galloping around the room, its paws skimming over the floor. Remus dove to the side in order to get out of its path and yelped when he caught his weight on his right hand. 

The dog slowed to a stand still, lifted its head and bayed long and loud. Just as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished.

"What was that?" Remus growled, jerking his head to where the dog had just disappeared. 

"Patronus," Sirius answered casually, twirling his wand between his fingers.

"What's that?"

"You don't know what a Patronus is?"

Remus shook his head. "No, I don't know much about magic. All I know is that…" he trailed off and shifted his weight form foot to foot uneasily.

"Is that?"

"Nothing."

"No, really, what?"

"But that's just it, I don't know anything about magic."

Sirius mulled that over for a second. 

A wizard that doesn't know anything about magic?

"You are a wizard, aren't you?"

"I…think so. I've done it on accident before."

A wizard that doesn't know anything about magic?

"Here," he reached out, grabbed Remus by the wrist and yanked him forward. The werewolf flinched and bit his lip to prevent from crying out. "Sorry," Sirius muttered, running his wand over Remus' broken knuckles, healing them as it passed over them.

"Thanks." He flexed his fingers and shook out the last of the tingling feeling. 

Sirius shrugged and gave Remus back the wand.

"You know, I expected you to hold on to this, and only give it up after one hell of a fight," his hand moved to pocket it once more when Sirius' hand shot out and grabbed his wrist again.

"I didn't give it to you just so you could put it away again," he snapped.

"Then why did you give it to me?" Remus asked coolly.

"You're holding it all wrong…here, like this." Sirius moved Remus' fingers to grasp the wand more firmly. "Now, what you want to do is keep a sharp wrist and use a swish and flick motion." He moved the wand to match his words. "Got that?"

"What are you-"

"You got that?"

"Yeah." 

Sirius let go of his wrist and sat down on the bed of blankets, leaning back on his heels. 

"Well, lets see it then."

Remus sat down in front of him, legs crossed and gave the wand an uncertain flick. Blue sparks shot out of the end and he dropped it as if shocked. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I've seen first years better with a wand than you are-"

"I wouldn't doubt it," Remus growled, poking the fallen wand with his finger and then carefully picking it up after if issued no more sparks.

"Do it again."

"Why-"

"Do it again. Bit more confidence this time, more flow." Sirius demonstrated. 

Remus gave it another flick, this one much cleaner then the last.

"Again."

This time Remus didn't even procrastinate, he flicked it again and Sirius was all over him in an instant, fixing his fingers and guiding his hand.

"Now try."

And so it went on. It took him ten minutes before he had it perfect enough for Sirius' liking.

"I don't know what you're playing at."

"Trying to teach you some magic." 

Remus' head snapped up and he blinked twice, wand rotating slowly in his fingers.

"Why? You don't have to-"

"No, I don't, but I do need something to pass the time with."

"Glad I'm your entertainment," he said dryly, giving the wand another swish and flick movement.

"You should be honored."

"Don't mock me, I'm the one with the wand here," he snarled, red sparks cascading from every which way.

"Point?" Sirius asked coldly, one eyebrow arched. "It's not like you know how to use it."

A minute of silence. Sirius smirked, considered himself the winner of this battle of wits.

"What next?" Remus' voice lowered to a whisper.

"Drop the wand."

"What, why? No, look I'm sorry I-"

"Just do it."

Reluctantly Remus obeyed and the wand dropped into the folds of blankets between them. 

"Now repeat after me." Sirius cleared his throat and Remus did the same. "Not that part, you idiot!"

"You said repeat after you-"

"Wingardium Leviosa."

Remus blinked twice and started back at Sirius.

"Gazoontite."

"No," he groaned, palming his forehead. "Say the incantation."

"What incantation?"

"Wingardium Leviosa."

"Oh-"

"Not oh! Wing-"

"Wingardium Leviosa."

Sirius could breathe more easily, at least they were getting somewhere now. 

"Say it again."

"Why-"

"Do you want to learn or not?"

Remus' mouth snapped shut and he repeated the incantation again. Sirius corrected his pronunciation and told him to say it again. He did. And Sirius had to set him right again. Remus groaned, leaned forward and hid his face in his hands.

"I'm too stupid, I can't do this. This is such a waste of time. Even if I could, what's the point? I can't do magic. I was never meant to do magic-"

"Don't say that." 

Remus peered though a crack in his fingers at where Sirius sat across from him.

"It's true."

"No, it's not," he sighed.

"Yeah it is."

"Do you wanna know a secret?" Remus shrugged, closing the crack in his fingers, blocking the light and Sirius out. In some ways they were two of the same.

"Not sure if I could keep it."

"I said the same thing."

"You can't keep a secret either?"

"Not that, about not being able to do magic."

"But you can," Remus said slowly, raising his head out of his hands. 

Sirius grinned and summoned his wand wordlessly to his palm.

"How'd you-"

"So can you." He held out the wand and nudged it into Remus' slack hand. "Now just put everything together."

On his third time, Remus had his pillow floating around the room.

"What'd I tell you? And you said you couldn't do it," Sirius said, lying on his back beside Remus on the bed of blankets and watching the pillow glide lazily and do loop-de-loops in mid air.

"What can I say, you're not a bad teacher."

"And you don't make for too bad a student."

"Who said I was your student?"

"You did when you called me your teacher."

"I called you 'a teacher' not 'my teacher'."

"Same difference."

And that was when the pillow fell to the floor and it became every man for himself when Remus tackled Sirius and smacked him in the face with the pillow.

- 


	9. Chapter 9

Rating of R

I do not own the character, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards."

-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

Blood Chronicles

-

After their impromptu magic lesson, something resembling a friendship formed. Or at least as much of a friendship as their circumstances would allow for. At least they could put up with one another now. To an extent.

It was fragile and slow in coming. Like an early spring creeping up on an unexpected winter. Over time they stopped sleeping on opposite sides of the room and learned how to use each others body warmth to their advantages during the cold nights under the ground.

Sirius was growing used to his life among the wolves. But just because he was getting used to it didn't mean he had to like it. He now knew what certain things meant so when he saw Remus digging through his backpack to uncover a bar of soap and two threadbare towels he knew it was shower time.

And boy do I need it, he thought, lifting up a strand of his lank hair between his thumb and forefinger.

"Well," Remus said, straightening up and throwing a towel across his shoulders. "You ready?"

"Shower?"

"Why do you look so excited? I thought dogs hated getting baths."

"Most."

"So am I to take it that you're an exception to the rule?"

"Most definitely."

Remus shook his head, threw a towel to Sirius and dug his fingernail into the bar of soap so he headed for the door.

They walked out of the den and then another two hundred or so yards behind it until they reached the six, gray roofed shower stalls.

"Wait a sec," Remus held out a hand in front of Sirius before he could rush into the nearest stall and went into it. "God dammit, you again."

Sirius could hear him on the other side of the shower stall door and was just wondering who the hell the other boy was talking to when out he came with a hissing, six foot long, copper headed snake.

"Okay," he said, holding onto the snake's tail and keeping away from its head. "All yours now…"

Remus trailed off, seemingly lost in thought when the snake lunged for his leg. He jumped back, swore and looked to where Sirius was regarding him and the snake with a curious look.

"You wanna know a trick."

"What kind of trick?"

"One just as good as your magic trick. Watch."

He slung the snake over his head and cracked it like a whip. Sirius' eyes widened as he watched the head fly off and roll into the under brush. Remus threw the rest of the snake after it, handed Sirius the bar of soap and disappeared into the second shower stall. The water hissed into life.

"I want it when you're done. And just call if you have anymore snake problems!"

It was nearly a full minute before Sirius got into the shower and turned on the hot water knob. As soon as the water hit his skin he screamed and stumbled out of the shower stall.

The water continued to pour down in the empty stall. The water in the stall next to his shut off and Remus' head appeared about the door.

"What? What is it?" he asked, eyes darting from Sirius to the shower stall.

"It's-"

"What?"

"The water's freezing," his teeth chattered and Remus looked at him blankly.

"Oh, brother," he sighed and went back to his shower, the water hissed into life once more. Sirius walked up to the door and knocked loudly on it.

"What now?"

"Aren't you going to fix it?"

"How do you suppose I do that?"

"Doya have my wand?"

"No."

Sirius sighed, grabbed his towel and wrapped it around his waist. The water turned off again so that all that was left was a steady drip. The door opened a crack and Remus' water damp haired head poked out around it.

"Aren't you coming in?"

"What?"

"You heard."

Sirius blinded twice and shook his head.

"I'll just wait until you're done."

"There isn't gonna be any hot water left."

There was a long pause.

"So, you want me to take a shower…" Sirius started slowly. "With you?"

Remus shrugged. "You don't have to, but I don't know when the next time we can make it out here is. I wont look."

"I…" silver eyes moved uncertainly from his dirty torso to Remus' water damp face. His clean damp face. "Oh, budge over."

It wasn't as awkward as he thought it would be. They showed back to back, eyes fixed on the cinder block wall and occasionally elbowing one another in the ribs with muttered apologies. They only spoke when they asked the other to pass the soap or to tell the other to mover over and stop being such a water hog.

"Move over, I'm not getting enough water over here," Sirius mumbled, elbowing Remus over so that he could stand under the shower head.

Remus shouldered him away, fingers slipping to keep their grip on the slippery bar of soap.

"You're all washed up already-"

"Don't care."

"Well, too bad, I didn't have to offer to share my shower with you-"

"You're shower?" Sirius asked skeptical, face upturned to catch every last drop of water from the low pressure shower head.

"Has been since I was six."

They pushed each other back and forth, fighting to be under the full spray of the shower head. Each time they exchanged another shove, they grew in degree of viciousness.

"Move over-" Siruis hissed.

"No, you move over-"

"Why should I?"

"'Cuz you've already showered-"

"So?"

"Goddammit, Sirius." Remus rammed his shoulder hard into the soaking, raven haired teenager and Sirius slipped on the wet cement floor. He pin wheeled his arms wildly for balance and grabbed Remus' wrist as he toppled to the floor.

"Are you happy now?" Sirius asked through gritted teeth.

"Very," the other boy answered from his perch atop Sirius' chest.

He climbed to his feet, absentmindedly pulled Sirius up with him, and turned his back. Before he had the chance to turn his back fully, however, he caught a brief glimpse of a long scar running the length of Sirius' back. Remus double checked over his shoulder and also came to see a number of other scars crisscrossing all over Sirius' back.

Remus turned so that they stood back to back again and lathered the soap between his hands. He stood slightly off to the side so that Sirius could enjoy the hard down pour of artificial rain water.

"Where'd you get that?" he asked quietly, talking to the wall while his fingers spread the soap suds up and down his forearms.

"Hm? Get what?" Sirius tilted his head up, letting the water sluice the top of his head and roll down his back.

"The scar on your back." He felt Sirius' shoulder blades tense behind him and heard him swear lowly.

"You promised you wouldn't look," he laughed bitterly. "I told you I was just that irresistible."

"I never promised anything. I just said I wouldn't…I don't break promises."

"I didn't realize there was a difference."

"You're avoiding the question."

"No I'm not."

"You just did."

There was a lengthy pause. Remus lathered the rest of his body and rinsed the suds down the drain where they swirled in a colorful whirlpool.

"It's really none of your concern," Sirius said coolly, turned off the water.

He left the shower stall and the gray door swung like a long ago used saloon double in his wake.

Remus took his time, towel dried his hair, and felt the invisible tug when Sirius reached the end of his ten foot range.

"I didn't mean to see it."

Remus slipped into his grass stained jeans and shoes. He looked up to see that Sirius had had the very same idea after towel drying his body.

"All the same, you didn't have to say anything about it," Sirius snapped, pulling on his tee shirt and righting it after he put it on backwards in his haste to cover his back and rage. Remus covered his own souvenirs after living eleven years with werewolves.

"Just curious."

"Being curious could get you in a lot of trouble. Haven't you ever heard of curiosity killed the cat?"

"Good thing I'm not a cat then, isn't it?"

Sirius turned sharply on the beaten path to glare at the smirking boy a pace behind him.

"You're not funny."

"Wasn't trying to be," Remus shrugged.

They walked further down the unmarked path to a fork and took a right. The sky was growing darker with the setting sun while the leaves crackled under their shoes. Sirius kicked a stray stone so that it rolled into the thicket and out of sight. For a long time, neither spoke.

"My dad did it."

Another stone rolled into a creek that ran along to their left side.

"Lemme guess," Remus tapped his chin in mock thought. "Your dad did it, with the candle stick, in the ballroom. Am I right?"

Sirius froze and turned his head with a very serious expression on his face.

"No, not even close." He picked up a slow pace again and Remus took up a place at his side, matching step for step. "My dad, with a belt, in the study."

For a moment that was all either could say.

"I shouldn't have said that, it's not really something to be joked about, is it?"

"You've got that right," Sirius snarled, sounding every bit like his bear size of a counter part. "You've no right to say anything. You don't even have rights, for Christ's sake! You don't even understand and you never could. It would be unfair of me to expect you to."

It was Remus' turn to stop in his tracks. "What?" his voice was as emotionless as a heap of black ashes. "Did you just say that I don't understand? That I'd never be able to understand the concept that concerns when a father hits his child? Abuse?"

"You wouldn't be able to, you don't have a father-"

"Trust me, I have a suitable substitute."

"It-"

"Don't tell me I don't understand. Don't tell me it's not the fucking same," Remus growled. On the last syllable, his voice betrayed him and broke.

"I-" Sirius broke off and collected himself before he said anything else that he wuold come to regret.

He sat down on a fallen tree a little off their chosen path. Remus joined him, sitting on the opposite end and turned to straddle it. Sirius turned to face him, but found that he could not force his eyes to meet Remus' keen golden gaze.

He took a deep breath and plunged onward, the urge over sweeping him in a reckless surge that he could not put off and if he were to he knew that he would never find the inspiration to explain again.

"Ever since I was eleven, my father's used his fists to correct me. He never got over the fact that I ended up in Gryffindor and not the families' prided house of the snake."

Remus remained silent, filing each word carefully away for further examination.

"It was horrible, the black sheep to the Black family," Sirius paused to smirk at his own pun.

He twisted the steam of a wild flower around his finger, watching as the sweet moisture slid out of the end and down his hand.

"Good thing too, bunch of heartless, vile-" he had to pause to check himself. "Right, now's really not the time for a bitch on the family."

Remus shrugged. "When is it a good time?"

"I ran away, last year. Birthday present to myself," Sirius trailed off, lost in thought about how he'd left the house amid his parents' screaming and had went straight to James' house.

"I'm sorry."

They were both equally surprised by the words that came from Remus' mouth in response to Sirius' tale. It was only then that Sirius could bring his eyes up to meet Remus'. He was satisfied to note that his had not been the only ones averted.

Sirius half shrugged. "I dunno, James tells me that everything happens for a reason, or something like that. I guess that's supposed to make me feel better."

"Does it? Not for me. Fate just has a fucked up sense of humor when it comes to me. I don't see where having Greyback use me as his personal chew toy is supposed to get me. I don't see any reason for a lot of shit to happen."

Sirius looked up at Remus from behind the fringe of his hair. Remus cocked his head and almost didn't catch what the sable haired boy was saying. He found the gesture intoxicating.

"In a way I think James had it right…the more I think about it…the more I think I wouldn't have been anything like I am right now. You know, the lows were really low, but the highs were also really high."

"Really low is an understatement," Remus spoke to the smooth curve of Sirius' collar bone and wondered if he'd taste like the rebel he described himself to be.

He wasn't used to this, sex was not something he was used to restraining himself from. If it was someone he wanted, he got them. Curled up in the blankets in his den with harsh panting and a steadily building growl-

"-a rainbow."

Remus shook himself, wetted his lips, and dragged his eyes up to Sirius' gray ones. Gray eyes hidden half behind the damn fringe of dark hair.

"What?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "They say that after every storm, there's a rainbow."

Remus opened his mouth, but a fat raindrop landed on the tip of his nose and cut off all further speech. They both looked up and saw the billowing thunderclouds huddled close together, casting the skeletal figures' of the trees into shadow.

It was a silent agreement to get up, gather up everything they'd brought, and head back before the rain really started to pour. They also walked shoulder to shoulder, side by side, by an unspoken agreement.

And in the morning, after the storm had come and gone, there was indeed, a glorious rainbow.

-


	10. Chapter 10

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles.

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards."

-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter adn the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

Beta read by the most wonderful shimi. For what's right, thank her. For what's wrong, blame me.

Slash and also the main reason why this fic has an R rating. Please do not read if this bothers you. I'm not just talking about a little peck on the lips, either.

Blood Chronicles

-

"Petticoat," Sirius said in triumph, leaning over to point at the far edge of the paper that was spread out between the two boys.

"Where?" Remus asked, pen hovering as he searched for the word that his companion had already found.

"Over here," he nudged the pen's point so that it lingered over a small black print 'p'. Then he mapped out the rest of the word with his finger. Remus circled the word while his eyes flew to the list on the right hand side of the page to see what their next word hunt would be after. The further his eyes scanned down the long column, the further put out he became.

"Well," he sighed and laid his pen down on top of the word find book. "That's all of 'em. We've finished another one."

Remus flipped the page, picked up the pen and prepared to start on the next word find challenge. Sirius watched him for a minute and then leaned forward and closed the thin word find book.

"Hey! I was working on that!" Remus snapped in protest and made a grab for the book that he'd had for over two years and was still nowhere near to finished. Sirius pulled it out of his reach and tossed it onto the desk top.

"Yeah, yeah, that much I know," he rolled his eyes. "You might wanna save that for a rainy day."

"But-"

"And besides," Sirius spoke louder, overriding him, "I'm hungry."

"Point?" he stood up, crossed the room to his beaten desk, and flipped through the book with his head tilted, letting his hair fall into his eyes. Haircut, his mind whispered but he brushed the thought aside. Tried to find his page.

"My point is," Sirius said as clearly and slowly as he could through his gritted teeth, "that I'm hungry and it's dinner time."

"I still don't see your point," Remus muttered, at last finding his page and going to sit down again to continue to work on his puzzle. Sirius sighed and crossed his arms.

Fine, don't listen to me, he thought with exasperation. But I know how to bend you.

Just as Remus was about to sit down, head hidden behind the green and orange cover of the cheap entertainment book, Sirius took two quick steps backwards. The invisible rope, the cruel result of the blood bond, tightened around Remus' waist and yanked him back. He lost his footing and fell backwards with a surprised yelp, the book falling out of his splayed hands.

Sirius bent over him with an innocent expression plastered on his face. He tentatively offered the word find book to Remus.

"Now can we go eat?" Remus mumbled something incomprehensible, but Sirius caught a total of six different swear words. "So am I to take that as a yes?"

"C'mon," he sighed, and they left for dinner. Remus felt rather dejected that he hadn't gotten the chance to finish his word find. And Sirius felt very self satisfied that his growling stomach was finally going to get what it needed.

When they arrived at their destination, it was to find a room full of aggressive, hungry werewolves. They fought over who got to eat what. Who got the best of the meat, the ripest of the fruit, who had to eat the vegetables and who didn't have to. The only content and quiet one was Greyback, who was leaning back in his chair at his ease, a plate piled high with an array of food. His piercing eyes stalked Remus and the boy he was bonded to as they moved across the room to their usual spot, next to the boy Remus had taken in as his own.

"Remus," the name was spoken with a sharp tongue. Above all of the noise it had no problem ringing out to be heard by the entire room. All the talking and bickering ceased abruptly and all eyes traveled to land squarely on Remus.

"No need to yell, I'm not deaf," Remus answered to his name coolly, fingers busily peeling a ripe banana.

"Sometimes I really wonder."

"You know," Remus said loudly, tossing the banana peel over his head so that it just cleared Greyback's shoulder. He handed the fruit to Aaron who was sitting next to him. Being a pup, he'd get the very last of the food, the scraps. "Wouldn't it be nice to carry on a conversation without an audience?"

Taking the hint, the others went back to their meals with their usual banter and backbiting. Their ears were strained to catch any scrap of conversation.

"Aren't you authoritive," Greyback growled, picking out the stringy meat from between his teeth with one long fingernail.

"Very"  
"Get me a beer."

Remus gnawed on a piece of beef jerky that he'd borrowed from someone else's plate and waited until he swallowed before answering.

"Get it yourself."

"I said get me a beer."

"Get your own damn beer, I'm not your servant."

"No, you're not…" Greyback trailed off, eyes fixed dangerously on where Remus sat calmly. The other werewolves had once again grown quiet and were watching the duo apprehensively. "What are you all fucking looking at?" he roared, eyes never leaving Remus' pale profile. He leaned in closer to Remus so that his lips brushed the boy's ear and whispered lowly, "No, you're certainly right. You are not my servant, not by a long shot. You're my slave."

During the whole meal Remus had been constantly reminding himself not to rise to any bait that Greyback may or may not offer. When those words registered, all further advice to himself was instantly forgotten.

Remus threw himself across the table at Greyback, who reacted quickly by lunging forward and slamming him painfully hard into the table. Food and plates clattered to the floor and the werewolves close by stood and retreated swiftly to the other end of the room.

"Now, get me that beer, boy," Greyback growled lowly, too low for anyone else to hear and ground his knee in between Remus' legs, hard. Sirius flinched and dropped his eyes, his appetite fleeing rapidly. Remus bit his lip and nodded. The last thing he wanted, needed, was for the alpha male to berate him in front of the entire pack.

Head low, he swept like a shadow to a large, blue ice box at the back of the room and returned with a green glass bottle full of a murky, amber liquid. Remus stood directly behind Greyback's chair, painfully aware of all the eyes on him, and mimed bashing the bottle over the alpha's head.

Whenever kicked, Remus always made it a point to kick right back. No matter what, he'd never go out without some kind of fight. He'd never be the one to turn and run like a dog with his tail between his legs.

"Your refreshment, sir," he gave a mock bow and set the glass bottle carefully in front of Greyback. "If there is anything else, anything at all, just call." Remus dropped the London butler accent and sank back into his chair, glaring at anyone who dared to even try to look him in the eye.

"Pour it."

"Excuse me, sir?" the London butler accent had made a come back.

"Pour it." Greyback slammed a dirty glass beside the beer bottle. Remus stood and examined the glass for a second.

"Are you sure, sir, that you want me to pour your refreshment out of the clean bottle and into the filthy glass?"

"Pour it."

"As you wish, as you wish," he muttered and uncorked the bottle with more force than was needed. Remus poured all of the contents of the bottle into the glass, letting it over fill and spill down the cool side of the glass. Greyback picked it up anyway and drained it in a single, long pull.

"Another." He slammed the glass back down onto the table, and wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. The room was completely silent, eyes turning from Greyback to Remus and then back again. Neither one commented on this silence. Greyback approved of the audience that got to see his leadership enforced.

"Certainly." Remus loved it too when he half turned, spun back around on his heel, and bashed the bottle over Greyback's head. The green shreds went flying, catching the light of the dim overheads and making them glisten. The soft, twinkling sound they made as they hit the floor and scattered mixed with Greyback's roar of half outrage and half pain.

"REMUS!"

Remus yelped as he was slammed back onto the table's surface again, something sharp dug painfully into his lower back. He wasn't out just yet. Remus grabbed a handful of Greyback's hair and tugged, tugged hard. Greyback howled and when Remus drew his hand back there was a clump of hair clutched in his fist. He kneed the werewolf above him in the stomach before the alpha's mouth descended on his in a brutal, blood drawing kiss. Not yet.

Remus rocked their combined weight violently so that they rolled with a crash to the floor. Greyback's fingers were busily working on the button of his jeans. Remus spat in his face and crawled out from under Greyback just as the older man's fingers got the button undone and the zipper down. He bolted for the door, knowing when things had gotten too far, Sirius following quickly after him, jumping over up turned chairs.

He didn't stop running until he reached one hundred yards past the shower stalls. Remus stopped short, breath exhaling calmly from his nose, and paced from tree to tree.

Sirius skidded to a halt a moment later, bending double at the waist to draw deep breaths. He sank down to the ground, panting quietly, and rested his back against the tree trunk behind him. Sirius watched as Remus paced rapidly, lashing out occasionally at low hanging branches. His anger was absolutely radiating off in waves. So intense that Sirius could almost see it rippling off of him, and so intense that he could feel it rippling off of Remus.

In all his life, Sirius had never seen anything as powerful and horrifying and strangely beautiful all at once as he saw when he watched Remus struggle to control himself.

Remus reached out and cleanly snapped a thick branch off of a passing tree as if it were a twig.

Taking a moment now that his breath was even, Sirius took in his surroundings. He noted that this section of the forest seemed to be attuned to Remus' abuse. Signs of past neglect showed on the trees and landscape well. It seemed as if the young werewolf had somewhere to vent his rage.

Which is probably a good thing, Sirius thought as his eyes landed on five parallel slash marks engraved into a pines tough bark. Or else he would have torn them all to shreds a while ago.

His attention snapped back to Remus when a loud crack echoed through the natural enclosure. Remus had taken to punching things again and Sirius was completely surprised when he started to pace again, unharmed and knuckles unshattered.

It was hypnotic, that's what it was, hypnotic to watch a werewolf express the potential of his unyielding strength. Sirius was drawn to this wild, untamed creature like iron was to a magnet. And all in an instant he knew what he wanted. He wanted to tame that foreboding, reckless fireball. Wanted to break him, wanted to make him his. Wanted to try what Greyback had been trying to do for years.

Sirius shook his head, trained his eyes on Remus and tried to catch the other's gaze. His eyes were sidetracked by the hair brushing just above his shoulders, longer the day before, shorter now because Remus had been annoyed with the way it fell into his eyes when he bent his head to read, pulled out his pocket knife and sheared it off, uneven and short now. Enthralling, like his eyes and the way his body moved, all hard lines beneath loose clothing.

When their eyes finally locked, all Sirius wanted to do was push the other boy to the ground, grab a fist full of his impulsively cut hair, grind their hips together. Wanted to feel, had to know. Had to know if Remus was as hard as he was, had to know if he wanted this as badly as he did.

He stood up slowly, Remus paced away, eyes snapping away from Sirius'. Remus turned sharp on his heel, started in the opposite direction, and was immediately forced to jump back a few steps as Sirius stepped into his path.

"What the fuck?" he snarled, shoving past a solemn faced Sirius roughly. Sirius latched onto familiar territory around Remus' wrist. The werewolf didn't take very kindly to this show of restraint.

Dominance, a voice in the back of his mind whispered, and a shiver coursed down his spine.

The werewolf didn't take very kindly to this at all, and tugged violently away. He turned to face the other teen sharply.

Remus was shocked when Sirius' grip didn't subside and instead he found himself being pulled tight against the hard panes of Sirius' body.

Sirius shuddered under the feel of withering muscles reacting to his touch, like live snakes, in the body kept forcefully against his.

"What the hell-" he spat, something akin to fear and desire brewing in his voice and eyes. His hand darted instinctively to claw down the sable haired boy's shoulder. Sirius shrugged off the blow, sharp nails grazing over his fevered skin. Remus twisted quickly to the left as Sirius fingers took a moment to struggle for their firm grip.

Fine, you wanna go left? I'll let you go left.

Sirius moved with him, twisted an arm behind his back, and pinned Remus face first into an old pine tree thick with rich colored needles and pine cones littering the ground at their feet.

"Get off me," Remus moaned and hooked one of his legs around Sirius' to kick him hard in the back of the knee. Sirius buckled from the strike to the sensitive area and gasped slightly in pain.

Remus took advantage of Sirius' pain to slide down the tree trunk and crawl out from between Sirius legs. He regained his footing as Sirius turned, both sets of eyes burning with a deadly fire.

"What are you doing?" Remus' voice had been reduced to a low growl, one that rivaled Greyback's quite well. Sirius climbed to his feet, clothes dusted over with the pine needles that clung to him.

"I-" he was cut off and suddenly found himself breathless as Remus shoved him ruthlessly into the same tree that he'd been trapped on only a short moment before. His reflexes were quick enough to jerk his head to the side so that his cheek collided with the harsh, unforgiving bark, instead of the front of his face. Blood trickled from the scrapes that plowed the side of his face.

"How do you like it?" Remus growled, chin resting on Sirius' tensed shoulder, the husky words ghosting over the outer shell of the raven hair's ear. Sirius gritted his teeth together and fought to free this trapped arms.

This was not what he had in mind. His shirt was being tugged hastily upward and it was then that he realized he wasn't the only one who wanted something to call his own.

The offensive cotton tee shirt fluttered to the ground and Remus flipped him over so that his back pressed painfully hard into the cutting bark. It was the first time he'd been able to see those radiant eyes up close and when he did, breathing ceased being a concern.

Hesitantly, Sirius raised a finger and traced the out line of Remus' red, slightly parted lips. For a second he imagined that some of the fire cooled in the werewolf's eyes. Only for a second.

Remus' eyes changed focus from Sirius' face to his wandering finger. When they traveled slowly down to his gradually creasing forefinger they flashed, and in a blur of white teeth, he snapped at it so that the click of his conjoining canines rang like a gunshot.

The finger retreated quickly, thankfully still fully intact. Remus' eyes narrowed, but other than that, neither of them moved a muscle. Their harsh breath entwined, what with their faces so close. And when had that happened?

Maybe a different approach…it's worked on plenty of girls… Sirius thought and began to feel the first sensations of nervousness clawing at the soft interior of his belly.

Yes, seduction had worked on a large number of Hogwarts' ladies, half the time he didn't even need to pull that weapon out of the artillery, but he'd never tried anything with another boy before. It was new territory he was treading in now and he felt as if he were walking straight into no man's land without any defense.

Well, at least I can experiment, Sirius thought.

In the deeper recesses of his mind, however, he had the creeping suspicion that this had nothing to do with experimenting.

He started to work his fingers softly over the exposed skin of the werewolf's neck. Remus wasn't having any of it.

Remus leaned forward and kissed Sirius, closed lipped and hesitant.

When he pulled back his face was a closed book, completely unreadable, and Sirius was surprised at how gentle, how soft that kiss had been. They studied each other for a minute, not exchanging words, there were none to say. Remus descend for a second kiss.

The second kiss was anything but gentle and soft. Sirius made a surprised noise in the back of his throat at the sudden surge of force and neediness behind that one kiss. He would have fallen over backwards had it not been for the supporting tree behind him.

It seemed that the first, hesitant kiss had been a test. A test of his worthiness, of his submission. Sirius had sat and taken it all like a good little puppy. He didn't pose a threat in overpowering Remus and turning the tables the way Remus didn't want them to be turned.

A low moan erupted from deep within Sirius' throat as the other body pressed up tight against his and as a warm tongue prodded at his lips. Sirius' lips parted easily and without coaxing, leaving Remus tongue free to explore the velvet lining of the other boy's mouth.

He'd never been on the other end of the relationship before. Usually it was him pinning partners up against the wall…or in this case, tree.

Damn, I've never been a toy like this before, Sirius thoughts were interrupted by a half groan, half moan as their hips grinded together, sending wonderful friction racing throughout his body.

God, he's good…I'd be his toy anytime…

Sirius set a faster pace for Remus to follow after. Remus growled and nipped at Sirius lower lip because it wasn't he who was setting the rhythm. Their breathing was an uneven and jerky mess as desperate hands started to fumble with buttons and zippers that were seemingly impossible to undo.

Somewhere along the way, they had been subtly edging further and further to the right until Sirius' back wasn't supported by the wide pine anymore. They both fell backwards into a bed of pine needles and autumn leaves. Neither seemed to notice.

Remus slid Sirius' jeans off of his hips after a second of struggling and his own followed not a moment after. Mouths clashed together in a battle for dominance that was neither painful nor blood drawing.

Sirius pushed his weight up on his elbows and kissed back hard with his fingers interlocked in an ocean of amber locks. Remus growled, pushed him back flat on his back. One of Sirius' hands glided carelessly down the length of the other's body, finger tips dancing over battle wounds on Remus' sides, stomach, and back.

His breath hitched as Sirius' clever hands circled around his hips and then crossed the space where torso and thigh met. Sirius smirked, hands dropping even lower, and brushing teasingly light.

Remus swore quietly, head dropping so that his forehead rested heavily on Sirius' chest.

Untamable? Wild? I don't think so, Sirius thought, hands moving up and down the werewolf's hard length.

A moment later he was forced to eat his words when Remus planted wet, lightly snapping, open mouth kissed down his body. They began at his neck, down to the collar bone, traveling even further down his chest and pausing to tease over rock hard nipples, tongue digging around his navel, until his greedy tongue was lapping up the beaded pre come.

Sirius gasped, arching his back off the ground to feel more of that tongue, more of those lips, more mouth, more of the glorious heat. Remus left him with one last, long lick along the underside before descending for another battle of lips and tongue.

Sirius grunted, eyes rolling back in their sockets. Remus' fingers played with rock hard nipples, rolling them between thumb and forefinger. Sirius thrust forward and whimpered when he was met with empty air. Remus rotated his hips to provide more teasing friction.

Sirius whimpered.

Remus smirked.

That single action brought Sirius back to reality. He was being teased, taunted, playing the submissive, the beggar, the pleader, the bottom.

Now something's definitely wrong with this picture, Sirius thought and cursed his mouth for responding to Remus fingers and lips with the whimpers of broken fragments of sentences.

He snaked his legs around Remus' waist, stayed like that for a moment to let the other boy think he'd come out on top. He waited until he felt something he'd grown accustomed to over the past twenty minutes push eagerly at his entrance.

Gotcha.

He flipped them over to reverse their positions.

The king was regained his rightful throne, all was right with the world.

Remus looked up at him, eyes still wild, passionate wildness. Eyes still locked with those golden orbs that had hypnotized him, Sirius slid a finger into his mouth. His lips wrapped around it and sucked on it. A second, and then third, joined the first. For a split second, Sirius' eyes left Remus' face and focused on guiding his fingers.

A split second was all it took.

Remus pulled his legs out form under Sirius. Remus pushed his feet hard into Sirius' stomach, sending him toppling off of him. He rolled to his feet just as Sirius regained his own footing.

With fingers flexing, Sirius lunged at the golden eyed werewolf, jumped him so that they fell to the ground again. Remus gasped to regain the breath that had been knocked from his lunges and Sirius took advantage of his breathlessness to push a saliva slicked finger into him.

At that point, Remus was on his elbows. He fell flat on his stomach to the ground, eyes shut and mouth slightly open. The finger crooked and Remus moaned, hands fisting in his hair. A second and third joined the first. They stretched his body quickly and pulled out.

Golden eyes snapped open and Remus growled.

Both were rolling on the ground again, fighting for dominance between gasping breaths, groping hands, and wet kisses. Remus turned their bodies to summersault and in the end sat straddling Sirius.

Sirius' head rolled back limply, knowing what was to come yet exhaustion had already taken over. It didn't matter. His body didn't even want to fight anymore.

There was a moment of smoldering pain and then both fell away into bliss, pure bliss as their bodies entwined together in a dance of passion and fire, lust and ice.

They lay curled possessively around one another an hour later. The sun was sinking lower and lower behind the horizon and the birds had stopped their soft singing, retreating to their nests for the night.

Their chests rose and fell in unison, Remus' head on Sirius' stomach. Their breath and heart beats mingled together and spoke the language of oneness. Sirius couldn't remember a time in his life when he had ever felt more content.

His fingers threaded through soft hair that was damp with sweat. To be completely honest with himself, Sirius had not expected Remus to be as gentle as he was. After their fight for top everything had gone smoothly.

"You're just full of surprises, aren't you?" Remus muttered against the lean muscle and soft skin of the other boy's stomach.

Remus turned his head up to look at Sirius and for a second Sirius thought he'd read his mind. For a second time that day, Sirius felt himself fall victim to the fathomless golden pools that belonged to the boy he'd spent an hour making love to.

Thinking about calling it love sent a shiver down his spine. He'd never made love to anyone before, he just fucked them.

"You've got such beautiful eyes," Sirius whispered with a voice that was hoarse after the neglect that had been vented upon it.

Almost absent mindedly, his finger moved to trace slowly around Remus' eyes. Remus caught his hand and guided it to his mouth. He turned it palm up and kissed it there.

Something I used to do to dad…Before…When I loved him…I never loved him… Remus thought and his mind battled it out.

"They weren't always like this."

"What? Contacts?"

"No, they're natural. Or at least natural in my real life."

"Real life?"

"Before I was bitten, before I really started to live, they were as green as anything."

"Started to live…" Sirius trailed off.

"If you can call before a life," Remus snapped, eyes flashing and ducked his head down.

"Well, you were alive, weren't you?"

"Yeah," the response is mumbled and so quiet that Sirius needs to strain his ears. "I was alive, but I wasn't really alive. I'm lucky to have this gift…This treasure."

Sirius was silent, pensive as he stroked the top of the werewolf's head.

"You know who you sound like?"

"Me?"

"Greyback."

Sirius could feel the way that Remus stiffened beneath his hand. Remus' muscles tensed and he got gracefully to his feet. With his back to Sirius, he stooped to retrieve his jeans and slipped into them.  
"C'mon, we'd better-"

"Remus," Sirius whispered from his spot on the forest floor. Remus looked back at him over his shoulder, his silence telling the Animagus to continue. "Just…wait a minute."

After a short pause, Remus sighed and laid back down beside Sirius. He watched as his hands traced lazy circular patterns on the skin of Sirius' navel.

"After I was bitten they turned gold," Remus laughed quietly. "You should have seen me…when I woke up the next morning, I was so surprised that my eye color had changed over night."

"Do all werewolves' eye colors change?"

"No."

"Then why…did yours?"

"I'm not the only one."

"Only some turn?"

"Only a few choose to change their eye color."

"But…why? They're so beautiful…" Sirius felt himself once more being drawn in unwillingly.

"You're the only one to say so. Others call it a curse. I know it's not. How can this curse have cured me? How can a curse cure anyone?"

"Cure?" Sirius asked, laying on his side and supporting his weight with a bent arm.

"When I was younger…I was…very sick. The doctors always said that there was no cure. My father told me that there was no way to get better. They doubted that I'd make it to the age of seven."

A long pause followed, in which both looked anywhere but at each other.

"Why do people see them as a curse?"

"They're proof that I've let the wolf into my life without resistance. I don't fight him, I invited him in with open arms," Remus snorted. "And because I'm more wolf than man I'm evil, vile, horrid, and all the like."

"Why didn't you fight it then?"

Remus shrugged and pulled up a handful of grass.

"What's the point? I don't have to deal with all the mental stress or the agony of the full moon."

"You mean the transformation doesn't hurt?"

"It always has hurt and it always will. There's no way to dull that pain. It's something neither I nor the wolf have control of. The moon holds complete control over both of us. I can't even begin to tell you how much it hurts. It's beyond comparison.."

"Then what do you mean about no agony?"

Remus looked back at him, a slow smile flittering across his lips.

"I don't have to go through what those fools who deny the wolf do. I don't rip myself to pieces. I have control."

"Control?" Sirius asked slowly, rolling the word on his tongue.

What Remus was telling him defied all that he'd ever learned, had ever seen.

"But you can't control it."

"You're right, I can't. I can't control that it happens. But I can control what to do with it."

"Control," Sirius repeated to himself, mulling the word over until every thing clicked into place. "That's why you were acting so weird during the moon."

Remus grinned and swept a stray strand of hair out of Sirius' eyes.

"Finally got there, did you? I was wondering when you were going to ask," he laughed quietly. "You should have seen the look on your face when I took you through Hogsmead. Priceless, simply priceless."

"You'd look the same way if you'd been in my shoes."

"No, I wouldn't have, I would have known what the golden eyes meant."

"Well, I didn't…" Sirius' eyes traveled to meet with those shining, overly bright orbs for the umpteenth time. "So beautiful…So…Familiar."

"Well, I'd hope so. You've been seeing them nonstop for over a month."

"It's almost as if I've seen them somewhere before…"

"Yeah, like every hour of the past month," Remus yawned and rolled to lay on his back to watch as the moon rose and the first stars of the night became visible beyond the thick clouds.

Sirius leaned over him, hair falling into his eyes, with a pensive look plastered across his face.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" Remus snapped, hands scrubbing at his face after Sirius continued to study him like an open book.

Remus squirmed beneath the close scrutiny and his hands fell away as he blinked up at Sirius. Sirius' eyes widened.

"Sirius-" Remus started.

"You!" Sirius yelped, springing away and stumbling over his own feet.

"Me? Well, who else did you expect? The bloody Queen of England?" he smirked.

"It was you! You're the one form the paper!"

"Paper? What the hell are you-"

"Stay away from me, murderer!"

Remus sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Oh, that paper."

Sirius scrambled away, face pale and clumsily put on his jeans and shoes. He couldn't find his shirt in the darkening light.

"I just…Just-"

"Slept with a murderer, as you have so kindly titled me? Why, yes, I believe you have." Remus said coolly.

"You…Killed all those innocent people…Thirteen innocent people…" Sirius said in a horrified kind of trance, the black print of the Daily Prophet flashing before his mind's eye.

"Please, I know what I've done, no need to repeat it for me," Remus waved the rest of his stumbling sentence away with a casual flick of his wrist.  
"You just…Just stay away from me!"

"Right, because a blood bond makes that so easy to do," Remus snorted, rising and brushing away the pine needles that clung to him.

"Keep away!" Sirius snarled when the other boy tried to move closer to pick up his tee shirt.

Remus flinched.

"Now do you understand why people call it a curse?" he whispered. "We have an agreement, an unbreakable contract, he and I do. He lets me have control of my own body because he and I have the same intentions."

Sirius took a deep breath and bent to pick up Remus' shirt. He walked over to where Remus stood with golden eyes glued to the pine needle strewn ground.

"Rem?" He asked tentatively.

"Hm?" He didn't look up. "Don't call me that, it's Remus."

"C'mon, let's go back."

Remus looked up, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"Is it really that time already?"

Sirius did not answer. He was finding out very quickly how the werewolf's soft edged smile had the same hypnotic powers that his eyes possessed.

So beautiful, I think I'm in love, Sirius thought as his mental gate between thoughts and actions broke.

"I love you."

Silver eyes grew wide and he clapped a hand over his mouth, wishing he hadn't spoken three of the most powerful words in the entire English language. Remus' eyes flashed the color of sun hot embers as their eyes met. Sirius' eyes shied away first, a red rose blush creeping across his face.

"What?" Remus asked, not angry like the grim Animagus expected him to be, but confused.

"I-nothing," Sirius shook his head.

"Did you just say that you love me?"

"I-"

"You can't."

Sirius fell silent. Remus started slowly towards where the other boy stood. For every step to took forward, Sirius took one back.

"Did you, or did you not, say that you love me?"

"No," Sirius said quickly before Remus had the chance to get over his confusion and become infuriated.

Remus stopped advancing forward and then snatched his shirt out of Sirius' grasp.

"I didn't think so," he growled bitterly after the cotton tee shirt was hugging his torso again. Remus now thought it a mistake for it to have ever left his body in the first place.

"Look, Remus, it was an accident-"

"You're right, we should go back," Remus cut him off and strode past him, towards home.

Sirius stood frozen to the spot and blinked after him, and then bolted after Remus.

"Remus, wait up!"

"I wait for no one, hurry up."

"Just because I'm not head over heels for you-"

"Like I'd want you to be," he snarled, spinning around and nearly colliding head first into Sirius. "Like I'd want you to be in love with me. I don't," Remus said more calmly and returned to walking on.

"Denial is not only a river in Egypt…It's also the first step," Sirius muttered.

"I don't," Remus snapped forcefully without turning around. "Love isn't real, don't you know that yet? It's just some cheap fairy tale shit that people try to put into cheesy romance novels."

"I don't think so-"

"Yeah, well, I know so. So if it's love you're lookin' for, lover boy, you're barking up the wrong tree"  
Sirius fell silent after that and eventually fell in step beside Remus, shoulders brushing as they both walked on. Remus was breathing harshly, but did not say a word and did not protest.

"How about a friend, then?" Sirius asked as they walked beneath the canopy of trees, falling into shadow patches and into moonlit ones.

"Dunno," Remus shrugged. "What are they like?"

"They're awesome," Sirius grinned, mental pictures of James presenting themselves in the forefront of his mind. He felt a pang in his stomach at the emptiness he felt without his brother.

"Yeah? Are they all like you?" the werewolf smirked.

Sirius shook his head gravely.

"'Fraid not, you see, I'm one of a kind, special edition."

"Guess I'm lucky to have a friend like you, huh?"

"Who said I was your friend?" Sirius' face and voice were solemn.

Remus turned away, eyes downcast.

"I just thought that-"

"So gullible, of course I'm you're friend."

They walked on in companionable silence.

"I am not gullible."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

The two teenagers with the canine counterparts argued in good humor all the way back to the underground den full of sleeping werewolves. They argued on the way back, argued through the door, argued in lowered tones on their journey down the winding passages, argued until they reached Remus' sleeping quarters, argued as they changed into clean clothes, argued as they lay side by side under the warm blankets.

They argued until Aaron poked his head around the corner of the arch way that opened up into Remus' dark den and told them to shut up. He was, after all, trying to sleep.

-


	11. Chapter 11

Rating of R 

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

Beta read by the most wonderful shimi. For what's right, thank her. For what's wrong, blame me.

Blood Chronicles

-

"Where are we going?" Sirius asked as they trampled through the thick underbrush in a direction he had never been before.

"Hogsmeade. Watch there, prickle bushes," the boy leading the way called over his shoulder.

Sirius hissed in pain when a low branch caught onto his pant let and ripped through the material, straight to the flesh. At his gasp of pain, Remus looked over his shoulder and when he saw that Sirius was clutching at his leg, rolled his eyes.

"Lord, help us," he muttered. "I said be careful, didn't I?"

"No, you didn't," Sirius grunted as he pulled out the prickles that had been imbedded in his leg. "You said 'watch.'"

"No, I told you to watch there."

"Whatever."

"Are you done whimpering?" Remus sighed and started forward without waiting for an answer.

"Yes, and I don't whimper!"

"You just as good as admitted it when you said 'yes.'"

"Why are we going into Hogsmeade?" He snapped, hoping for a quick change of subject.

"Just because you're here doesn't mean I don't have to work," Remus shrugged and vaulted a mass of tangled weeds and thorns. "And be careful, there's some nasty-"

"Yeah, yeah, I see 'em," Sirius cut him off and proceeded to jump over the tangled mass. "What do you mean by work? You work? Where do you work?"

"Everywhere."

"So does the expression 'can only be in one place at one time' not apply to you?"

"Of course it does, don't be stupid. I'm not that good."

"Then where-"

"I make a living by doing what brought you here in the first place."

Sirius had to think about that for a minute.

"Pick pocketing?"

"You got it. Took you long enough, I thought for sure you wouldn't have even needed to ask."

The grim Animagus followed the well chosen path when something popped into his mind.

"Hey!" He yelled suddenly and bounded ahead and in front of Remus. Sirius turned sharply and jabbed him hard in the chest with a forefinger. "You-"

"Yes, haven't we already gone over this? Me."

"You owe me fifty gallons," Sirius declared smugly and held out his hand, palm up.

With a raised eyebrow, Remus looked down at his up turned hand.

"What do I look like, a walking fucking bank?"

"You stole fifty gallons from me," Sirius stated matter-of-factly, as if that answered everything.

"So?"

"So that means that you owe me those fifty gallons back."

Remus out right laughed and pushed past him.

"What's so funny?" He asked spitefully from the werewolf's side.

"What don't you get about pick pocketing? I don't borrow the money. I take it and have no intention whatsoever of returning it."

"But that's steeling-" Sirius said slowly, placing an extra emphasis on the last word.

"What don't you get about pick pocketing?" Remus repeated after stopping and leaning in close to Sirius.

"Well…I mean…Since we're friends and all-"

"Oh no, don't even try to play that card on me."

"It would be right-" Sirius said, more concerned with getting his money back than with what would be exactly considered right.

"Since when do you decide what's right and wrong? What even makes you think I still have that money ?"

Sirius blinked twice.

"What do you mean, that you don't have it? Of course you have it! I watched you take it!"

"You're kinda right…I have about twelve gallons left. Well, had twelve left."

"What happened to it?" Sirius demanded. "You spent it all?"

Remus kicked at the underbrush and muttered something under his breath.

"What?"

"Greyback."

"I don't-"

"Here we are," Remus proclaimed loudly, pulling back a tree branch and pushing Sirius through the gap between the twisted branches.

Sirius stumbled forward and, for the first time since his capture, laid human eyes on the warm, friendly, familiar village of Hogsmeade.

With a jolt, he also came to realize that it was a Hogsmeade weekend for Hogwarts' students third year and above. He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he hadn't even realized that Remus had been speaking to him.

"You got that?" Remus asked.

"Um…What were we talking about?"

Remus sighed and waved a hand to indicate the small village sprawled beneath them.

"Keep as far away from me as humanly possible, stay out of my way, keep quiet, and keep your head low. We don't want to attract any unwanted attention, now do we?" Remus asked, a question phrased with a hidden threat under the surface, warning Sirius not to step out of line.

Sirius rolled this information around in his head and gave an unenthusiastic thumbs up. Not a moment after he'd given his okay was Remus gone, sliding down the steep bank on perfectly balanced legs. He jumped to the bottom when he was about halfway down the embankment and looked back at Sirius with expectant eyes..

Well, Sirius thought as he took a deep breath and edged to the end of the bank-

-Here goes.

His thoughts shattered with a yell of surprise when the ground under his feet gave way and sent him tumbling head over heels down the side of the small mountain.

Remus rolled his eyes, dragged one weary hand over his even wearier face and muttered something that sounded a lot like 'amateur.' He pulled the disheveled boy to his feet with a smirk on his lips. The whole way into Hogsmeade, Sirius winced whenever his shoulder moved. The werewolf paused on the invisible line where forest floor evolved into cobblestone.

It was a sunny April day, late in the afternoon, and the wide and airy cobblestone roads were packed with Hogwarts students, the inhabitants of Hogsmeade, and other people just out to do their shopping. All seemed happy to be taking advantage of the fair weather. Sirius scanned the crowd and tried to speak to a few of his friends and classmates that he knew form school, but a swift and discreet kick from Remus put a quick end to any attempt on his part.

"Don't screw this up, I've got prime stock here and I am not about to let you ruin it," Remus hissed under his breath, attention focused on a group of older students milling around the display windows at Zonkos.

One was just stowing an over filled money bag back into his pocket, shoulders slumped in defeat and sorrow.

Sirius' eyes followed the path that Remus' gaze cut like a golden arrow, and came to a stop on the intended target. When they did, Sirius felt as if a stone had dropped into his stomach. A very heavy stone.

Not only did the boy with the money bag have a lot of gold, but he also had unruly black hair. And when he turned his head a bit to the side to say something quick to someone close by, Sirius caught the glint off of a pair of glasses. He swallowed hard and grabbed Remus quickly by the shoulder just as he started forward.

"You can't," Sirius said, hating the hoarse sound of his voice.

His gray eyes were trained on James, taking in the way that years had seemed to etch themselves into his face since the last time he'd seen him. Worry.

"You wanna watch me? I know what I'm doing"  
"I don't doubt your…Skills, but you can't."

"I don't care."

Sirius bit his lip, sterling eyes darting once from James and then back to Remus.

"He's my best friend," Sirius said more out of desperation than intention to stop the other boy.

Remus shrugged the restraining arm roughly away and disappeared into the heart of the crowd.

"Is that all?"

Sirius heard him call as he felt the invisible bond tighten around his waist. He clenched his fists and went unwillingly forward, the smirk in Remus' voice was so real it was almost palpable.

"All the better, then."

They left Hogsmeade that day with a total of forty-eight gallons. Twenty-nine of those forty-eight belonged, in the past tense, to one James Potter.

"You're very quiet," Remus offered off handedly, tossing his own money bag, newly filled with forty-eight gallons, between his hands as they headed back.

Sirius shrugged and ignored the thorns that ripped at his pant legs as he continued to trudge through the untamable weeds. His mind was back on James. James with that lost look in his eyes. He would bet every single one of those forty-eight gallons that someone had dragged James down to Hogsmeade in a weak effort to cheer him up.

"Alright, now I know something's up," the werewolf said, still toying with the ties of the money bag.

Sirius shrugged again and after a minute had passed responded with a muttered, "How so?"

Remus snorted and pocketed the leather bag.

"How so? I'll tell you how so. Your pants are being shredded to pieces and you're not whining about it yet."

At that, Sirius glanced down and saw that his pant legs were indeed being transformed into mince meat by the sharp thorns. Without another word, he started forward again, at the same slow, pensive pace.

"What's the hell's wrong?" Remus snarled.

"What?" Sirius asked, head snapping up with a completely confused expression on his face. "What were we talking about?"

"You know, it ain't nice to answer a question with a question," he drawled dryly. "Did you know that?"

Sirius gave him a baffled look, as though he had just been thrown into the conversation.

"Wait…what?"

Remus sighed and stopped walking. He turned sharply to Sirius, grabbed him by the shoulders and forcing him to come to a halt as well.

"What's wrong?" His voice was harsh, and far from kind, making Sirius wonder if he was actually concerned.

"Wrong? What gave you the impression that something was wrong?"

"Didn't we already have this conversation?" Remus sighed. "Oh, I dunno, it might have something to do with the fact that you're being unnaturally quiet, or because you don't care that your pants are being massacred. Or it could even be the fact that I can smell it on you. Which ever one you'd like to choose. It might be easier to just plead insanity-"

"What the hell happened to my pants?!" Sirius cut him off with a yell of anger as he took in the sight, this time with a focused mind, realizing that his favorite pair of jeans was now ripped in several places from the knee below.

Remus sighed heavily.

"That's how I know that there's something wrong," Remus muttered. "I knew it was too good to be true…I really wouldn't mind the quiet you with the habit for not caring if his jeans are ruined or not right now-"

"What the fuck happened to my pants?!"

"The shrubbery."

"Damn weeds."

Remus smirked as he picked his way through a mass of the very same damn weeds and Sirius glared.

"It's not funny," he snapped.

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong."

They trampled through more damn weeds without too much of a problem, in relative silence, or at least something that was a close cousin to silence. Remus waited until they stepped into the clearing where the den was set in the side of a small hill before breaking this close relative to silence.

"So what's on your mind?"

Sirius snorted.

"What the fuck do you care about what's on my mind?"

"Just wondering-"

"I was just thinking about James. That's all."

The earthy walls threatened to swallow Sirius' soft words whole.

"Who's James?"

"My best friend," Sirius muttered.

A uncomfortable silence settled heavily upon their shoulders.

"Oh. Your friend," Remus paused, eyes darting to the floor. "I thought I was your friend."

It was a statement in a question's costume.

"You are, it's just-"

"How can we both be your friends, then?" Remus snarled and Sirius was shocked at how hostile his voice was.

"There's no rule that says you're only allowed to have one-"

"How many other friends do you have?" Remus snapped, brushing aside what Sirius had to say and not looking at him as he quickened his pace.

"A few…" Sirius trailed off cautiously.

"A few meaning what? Ten? Twenty? Fifty?!"

"Hey, hey, hey," he interjected quickly before Remus' yelling could attract an audience. "Look, you're my friend and James is my friend. You're allowed to have more than one friend."

Remus stopped suddenly, and turned his head to face him. Sirius was happy to note that the icy glare was softening until there was nothing left. He didn't say anything and took a right at the fork instead of a left.

"You're going the wrong way!" Sirius called from the mouth of the forked passageway.

"Am not, now c'mon."

A bit confused, Sirius followed him down the right fork and as they walked it occurred to him that he'd never been down the right fork before. Neither said another word about their conversation concerning friends as they walked on.

When they came to a dead-end, Sirius thought that they really had taken a wrong turn. He didn't see the doorway hidden among the shadows until Remus brought his attention to it by stepping thought it. Sirius started after him but was stopped when Remus pulled the door that had been hidden in the wall, closed.

The Animagus stumbled backwards in surprise and then collected himself enough to try and open the door. He cursed and tried to jerk it open when it wouldn't budge.

No dice. The door wasn't that strong, nor was it heavy, but it wasn't moving. Sirius sighed in defeat after another failed attempt and sat down on the ground with his back against the unyielding surface. He just hoped that whatever it was that was happening on the other side of the door wasn't going to take long.

What he wouldn't give for Remus' word search book right now.

A low rumbling noise reached his ears after a minute of waiting. Curious, he pressed his ear against the door to try and hear the unsteady rumbling again. He wasn't disappointed. Only now that he was listening he could tell that what he had taken to be rumbling was actually a bit more than a meaningless noise. Rather a low toned conversation.

He could only catch a scratch of it, here and there. What he did manage to hear made absolutely no sense to him whatsoever. Sirius moved into a better position and, with a furrowed brow, strained his ears even harder.

The two low voices subtly became louder and with each and every passing word laced with increasing amounts anger. All at once the two beyond the door launched into a full on shouting match. Complete with cries of pain, the faint, dull sound of coins rolling on the ground, and a lot a banging.

Sirius started violently and jumped back from the door, hoping that it wouldn't open at any moment.

Now that he could hear the two more clearly, Sirius could at least identify the voices, if not what they were saying. They were screaming so incoherently, a raw, wild sound, that he couldn't make out a single word of what passed poorly for a conversation.

Remus and Greyback.

Sirius sighed, somehow he knew it would be in the back of his head the entire time.

No surprise there.

He hadn't expected this meeting. What he also hadn't expected was to be yanked forward and slammed into the door, hard. Sirius cursed quietly and struggled backwards, but found himself held fast by the invisible force. And at once, Sirius knew exactly what it was.

Remus had reached the end of his ten foot rope and was trying to move forward. Whether it was in offense or defense, Sirius couldn't tell. He was stuck. They were both stuck. Stuck with nothing to keep him company but the rough wood in front of his face and the yells that were slowly turning into tortured screams and then even more slowly into moans of pleasure.

Sirius squeezed his silver eyes shut as a glass shattering scream sent the fine hairs on the back of his neck on end. How he really wished that the door blocked out sound as well as sight.

The sound is always so much more painful than the sight, Sirius thought with a wince after another scream that had failed to be silenced escaped. Slowly, he lost track of the time that passed, while he kneeled, pinned face first against the door, until the screams and the dry heaves quieted. It wasn't until all was completely quiet that he felt the grip about his waist loosen. He slouched fully onto the floor.

The door did not open for another hour. All of the hour was spent in unnerving silence. In which all that Sirius could hear was the uneven sound of his own breathing.

Oh my God, he's killed him…

Sirius felt the bond slack even more. Feeling sick to his stomach, he came to the conclusion that the one he'd been bonded to was almost certainly dead. He didn't even realize that the first tears were welling up in the hollows of his eyes when the door slid open and fell back into its hiding place in the wall.

Fenrir Greyback almost knocked into him on his way out. The werewolf checked himself and took a half step back so that he was only a few inches away form Sirius. Golden eyes flashed and his teeth clicked together in a feral grin.

All the air left his lungs when Greyback pushed him against the wall. A cold, humorless laugh sent shivers racing down his spine and hot, ill scented breath played over his neck and ear. It wasn't long before the grim Aniamgus was soaked in a cold sweat.

"I didn't expect to have dessert, too," the raspy, smirking voice in his ear sang.

A hot tongue traced the outer shell of his ear. Sirius froze and shut his eyes, he didn't even have the strength to fight back. Fear had sapped it out of his body and will.

"Leave him alone," a choked, harsh voice snarled from behind them.

Sirius' eyes snapped open and caught sight of Remus' eyes glowing dangerously over Greyback's shoulder. Greyback's head wasn't even turned half way around when he was shouldered off of Sirius.

Sirius retreated backwards and felt something inside of him loosen when he was assured that Remus wasn't dead.

"Touch him again and I swear, I'll kill you."

"Is that a threat?" Greyback growled, standing up taller, all thoughts of dessert rapidly fleeing his mind as he advanced upon Remus.

The younger werewolf stood firm.

"No, it's a promise."

"Don't worry, I won't hurt your toy," he sneered and shot a glance of barley concealed lust in Sirius' direction.

Sirius took a step back and hit the wall, the blanched color of his skin standing out vividly against the dark backdrop of the earth constructed wall.

"He's not my toy," Remus defended lowly.

"I'm sorry," Greyback said with mock sincerity and turned to face Sirius fully. "I wont hurt your toy."

He disappeared back into the den with a lingering kiss over Remus' lips that spilt blood down his chin. Remus ran his tongue over his lips and glared pointedly at Greyback. Sirius swallowed hard and reacted just in time to grab Remus before he could pick a fight.

"C'mon, it's not worth it," Sirius' mouth spat out the first thing that sounded sensible.

Remus shot one last smoldering look at the archway that Greyback had vanished through and then, all at once, his body relaxed and the tension left his muscles. Now that he no longer had a reason to stand his ground and fight it seemed as if the reality of his encounter with Greyback was sinking in.

Slightly alarmed, Sirius led him back to his own quarters, for the first time noticing the blood that stained his skin and clothing. Remus was silent all the way back, his only form of communication being to wincing, and gulping lungfulls of air. For Sirius, both methods of communication were easily readable. Pain.

As soon as they reached Remus' quarters, he collapsed into the mattress-less bed and dry sobbed his way into oblivion in the blankets. Sirius stood off awkwardly to the side and was thankful that the sobs only lasted for a few seconds before they stopped.

He approached uncertainly, sat down beside the other boy slowly, and gently prodded Remus on the shoulder. Remus' reaction was to wince and turn his head to look at Sirius. Golden eyes couldn't quite meet silver eyes.

"What?" Remus' voice was cracked with unshed tears.

"You okay?" Sirius already knew the answer, he'd played this game before, only on opposite sides of the playing field.

He knew it wasn't necessarily the best thing to say, but it would have to do. What else could he say? Remus turned his head away again, voice muffled.

"Sure, I'm fine, just fan-bloody-tastic."

"That's my word," his attempt at making light of the conversation failed.

Sirius closed his eyes and concentrated. A second later, a shaggy, black dog sat in his place. The canine shook his head and grinned the best a dog could. Which turned out to be more like baring his teeth. Sirius liked viewing situations in black and white with no shades of gray in between. A dog's mind was less complex therefore he worked more off of what came naturally than off of thought.

Padfoot barked happily and wagged his tail. When this got no reaction he huffed and crawled under the blankets. He wormed his way through the maze of twisted blankets until he was nose to nose with Remus. Padfoot barked again and Remus' eyes opened.

"'Lo mutt," he mumbled and reached a hand forward to scratch Padfoot behind the ear.

Padfoot growled and a second later Remus wasn't petting a dog but Sirius. He startled and withdrew his had quickly.

"It's Padfoot, not mutt," Sirius corrected haughtily and caught Remus' wrist. "Got it? Next time you call me that, I'll bite you."

He moved Remus' hand back to tangle in his hair and transformed so that he was once again petting Padfoot.

"Padfoot? What kind of a name is Padfoot?" Remus snorted.

Sirius made a reappearance with a very offended look.

"A creative one, that's what kind."

Remus rolled his eyes.

"At lease it's better than Smoke."

Before he could get smacked up side the head, Padfoot laid in his place again, because who would ever smack a dog?

Apparently Remus would.

Padfoot pretended to whine and howl in agony and was very pleased to see that Remus backed away with an alarmed and guilty expression. This went on for an entire minute before he stopped suddenly and yawned with the happiest look on his face.

"Bastard," he muttered but didn't dare provoke him again incase of a repeat of his bawling.

Remus edged closer to Padfoot and rested his head on the furry dog's back. Padfoot looked over his shoulder to nudge the boy off of him when he saw that his eyes were closed with a pained expression painted on his face as he tried not to cry. The dog felt at a loss and could do little more than lick the tip of his nose and offer silent comfort. His eyes dropped, but he did not have long to rest.

Padfoot's sensitive ears twitched and perked up when he heard someone enter the den. Padfoot laid still, his ears flickering every time he heard another foreign noise. There was snickering, lots of snickering. By the sound of it there where two of them and they were two that he wasn't familiar with.

Damn wolves, always traveling in packs, he thought, and not a moment later the blankets left him and Remus, yanked off of their warm bodies.

Remus didn't move but Padfoot was already on his feet, eyes focused on the intruders. They were two that he'd seen around but couldn't quite place them.

"Well, Smoky, we know that you're a cry baby, but do you have to wail about it?" One sniggered with an oily voice and they both broke into peals of laughter.

The frown on Remus' brow deepened and he rolled over, his back to them.

"Now is that any way to treat those higher ranked than you?" The second snarled and started forward to turn him over.

Padfoot growled and leapt, teeth sinking into the skin of the advancing man's shoulder. He shrieked, tried to twist around to get the dog off of him and fell. Padfoot let go and growled lowly, a threat to either of them if they even thought about coming forward again. The two werewolves looked at him warily.

Remus mumbled something and rolled back over, eyes open and hazy with a short sleep and the shadows of pain. Padfoot looked form him to the other two.

"What the hell do you want?"

"To tell you to stop crying, it's annoying," the one without the shoulder that was gushing blood said, none too kindly.

"I wasn't-" Remus didn't get a chance to say anymore because at that moment Padfoot sprang forward again, causing them to scatter from the dark den.

Remus sighed and laid back down on the blankets, too exhausted to worry about whatever they had wanted in the first place. Padfoot joined him again, and Remus stroked him on the head.

"You didn't have to do that."

Padfoot panted and licked his fingers.

"I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

Padfoot panted and rolled his eyes, giving Remus his best doggy version of a disbelieving look.

"I am! I can look after myself and I don't need you to do it for-"

With a soft pop, Sirius made another reappearance, two fingers pressed against Remus' lips to silence him.

"I know, now shut up and go to sleep."

Remus was all too happy to oblige.

But as they drifted off to the welcomed bliss of sleep, there was one thing that neither of them had noticed.

While on the other side of the door, Remus had been eleven, not ten, feet away from Sirius.

-


	12. Chapter 12

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards."

-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. what if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. what if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

Blood Chronicles

-

For the second time in the past week, Sirius found himself on the other side of a locked door. The very same bolted door, as a matter of fact. Sirius felt a strong sense of déjà vu while he traced the patterns formed in the wood grain with his finger.

Sirius was out in the dirt interior hallway again, sitting on the floor, while Remus and Greyback fought with superior tones on the opposite side. He could feel the invisible bond tugging at him every once and a while. In the back of his head, a small voice kept nagging at him that something wasn't right. Things just didn't seem to sit well with that isolated part of his mind. He couldn't help but agree that something was off.

The bond wasn't pulling at him as hard as it should. At some point it was so weak that he couldn't even feel it tugging at him. Sirius frowned when another weak pull took hold of him. He leaned back against the door and searched his mind for anything he could remember learning about blood bonds. He was in an advanced class for heavens sake, spending his Defense classes at London's esteemed Auror Academy to study.

He didn't have long to ponder, however, because something came up that washed all thoughts of a blood bond completely out of his mind. His name. They were talking about him behind that locked door that he'd been left on the other side of.

Startled out of his retrieve, Sirius flattened himself against the door, ear pressed against the splintering wood and strained for any more scratches of conversation. It turns out he didn't really need to strain. He had a little help.

Along with raising tempers, the two werewolves, a mere hour from the full moon, were also raising their voices. It didn't take long before they were both screaming, almost growling at each other.

"Take the fucking bond off!"

Even if he hadn't recognized the voice, judging from the content, there was no doubting that the roar belonged to Remus.

"I already told you. I can't."

A shiver rushed down Sirius' spine at the primal tone of the voice that responded.

"I know you can! You're the one that put it on in the first place! There has to be some way to take it off!"

"Even if there was, why should I?" Greyback's voice sank back down to a cool, haughty tone.

"Because he ruined my last moon-"

"And who's fault was that?" Greyback spat.

"Hm, let me think about that…Yours, perhaps? For putting the damn thing on me in the first place!"

"If I take it off, who else am I going to put it on? He cannot be left unsupervised."

"Someone else! Anyone else! I don't care, just take it off!"

"No, it's your fault, you can deal with him."

"I don't see why you didn't just kill him in the first place," Remus' voice snapped in a sulky mutter. It was easy for Sirius to imagine the arms crossed at his chest as he went eye to eye with the older werewolf.

Sirius winced. A long pause within followed and all was silent.

"You know what? That doesn't sound like too bad an idea. S'like killing two birds with one stone or whatever the hell it is they say. You'll stop whining and I wont be bothered to do it later."

The grim Animagus jumped away from the door, his heart and mind both racing.

Oh, God, no! This can't be how it's gonna end…I was so close…

He was brought back to reality by Remus' sharp response.

"Leave him be-"

"Now you wanna stick up for him?" The other werewolf sneered.

"Don't hurt him," Remus growled. "He's my friend." So quiet that Sirius could barely piece together what he had said.

Remus' voice sounded desperate when something in Sirius' mind finally clicked into place. When everything at last made sense.

He hadn't just imagined the blood bond weakening. It really was weakening.

His Defense Teacher's words came rushing back to him all at once.

A blood bond is a rather curious thing. It only works if one has the right, shall we say, temperament. You see, in order for it to be effective, both parties must hold a hatred for one another. Without that hatred the bond will weaken until broken.

Hatred, Sirius thought, the adrenaline pumping though him like a drug overdose and sharpening his senses.

So that's why it worked…Because we hated each other…But now…

The Animagus grinned, closed his eyes and human shape melted gracefully into canine.

Padfoot lunged forward and was, at first, tangled up within the invisible blood bond that was born out of mutual hate. He gritted his teeth together and pushed all of his weight forward. The bond restraining him stretched, then strained.

C'mon, almost there.

He concentrated on the nights they'd stayed up late together. About their regular 'magic lessons' that had continued and had progressed quite nicely even after the first one had ended. He thought about how Remus' face looked when he accomplished a new spell, shy grin that pretend arrogance tried to cover up. He thought of the pillow fights and eating Remus' red Swedish fish late at night. He thought of the time he'd told the other boy that he loved him.

Then they snapped.

Padfoot stumbled forward in surprise but regained his footing quickly.

He didn't stop running until he reached Hogsmead. When he did, he turned to face the way in which he'd come.

But now we're friends…

Panting with an open mouth and heaving sides, the black dog trotted through Hogsmead and kept going until he reached the alleyway behind Honeydukes. He transformed in the alleyway, with it's over turned garbage cans and mingling stray cats, and collapsed to the ground.

Sirius covered his face with his hands to keep from sobbing. He laid that way for a long time before he got his composure back; by the time he did, all of the cats had fled in fear of his silently shaking body.

He stood on his feet and looking around for a minute, trying to steady himself and his mind at the same time. Quietly, he slipped around to the front of the store and inside of it with absolutely no intentions to use the passage way in the basement.

-

"I don't care what it takes, but you're not gonna-" Remus started in a deadly growl.

He broke off, mouth formed around his next word, when he felt something snap painfully inside of him. Remus bit his lip hard and screwed his eyes shut against the bright flare of pain that was gone as quickly as it had come.

Golden eyes trained themselves on Greyback, expecting he'd been the one to cause the twinge of pain.

"I don't have to do anything. You're in no position to tell me what to do," Greyback snarled just as Remus silently came to the conclusion that it had been the ever present blood bond again.

It's never felt like that before, Remus thought and darted forward and Greyback started for the door, a feeling of fear that he was unaccustomed to welling up in the pit of his stomach.

"You can't hurt him…Please don't hurt him."

They struggled again, yelling meaningless things, snarling and clawing, until Greyback threw him off and ripped the door open. Remus clenched this eyes, ready to jump in again in a seconds notice. To his utter surprise, Greyback froze, half way in and half way out of the doorway. Remus could see as his head turned slightly left and right, could hear his nostrils flaring in an attempt to pick up some lost sent.

"Where is he?" The alpha male snapped, rounding on Remus with a look of pure suspicion.

"Who?" Remus asked, although he already knew perfectly well who Greyback was inquiring about.

The thought that Sirius was nowhere outside of the door was enough to send his stomach into a fit of summersaults.

"You know damn well who," he spat, advancing on Remus while his eyes darted to the shadows of the room, as if he half expected the boy to be lurking in a corner out of sight. "The Black boy, where the hell is he?"

Remus shrugged.

"Dunno, what do I look like, his keeper?" Remus bit his lip as the words left his mouth and cursed himself silently.

Sirius' keeper was exactly what he was.

"You damn well do, where'd he go?"

"Go? How do you go anywhere with a fucking blood bond?" Remus said, trying to hide his smugness.

"How'd you break it?" Greyback hissed, lifting Remus by his shirt. "You weren't supposed to know how to-"

Remus laughed in victory and slipped himself out of the other's grip.

"I knew there was a way to break it! I told you so, you fucking liar."

"Don't call me a liar, you know nothing, pup! It doesn't matter in the end!" Greyback roared, annoyance and panic filling his voice.

The approaching moonrise did not help to quell his edginess, and made it harder to suppress escaping emotions.

"The point is that's it's broken!"

Remus shrugged once more, a cool mask covering his face for the umpteenth time. He schooled himself very strictly when it came to his emotions.

"Looks so-"

"You don't even know what this means, do you, you ignorant pup?" Greyback snapped, spinning in tight circles, pacing.

Remus' nose wrinkled in disgust.

"Don't call me pup, I'm not your-"

"He knows too much…And now he's gone," the older werewolf muttered to himself, mind on overdrive. "Get the others, all of them, and get them outside. Be quick," he barked like a General at Remus. "We'll need to move fast…Moon's in an hour…We'll need to be at Hogwarts by then."

"Hogwarts? Why are we going there?"

"Don't be a fool, Black's long gone. Where do you think he's running to right this moment?"

"I guess Hog-"

"He'll tell them all! He'll spill everything! He's been here for two months…We have to kill him before he has the chance to utter a word to anyone."

Remus had been halfway to the door when that sentence made him freeze and turn slowly.

"Kill him?"

The words sounded dirty on his tongue, like a swear word far worse than any he'd ever conceived before.

"We can't-"

"And what else do you expect us to do? Ask him nicely not to say anything to anyone?" He snarled. "I don't think so. Now, get going! Get the others outside and ready to go!"

"Why do we need them?" Remus' mind raced to land on a certain eight year old boy.

"We'll need a good distraction to get in," Greyback said, canines flashing wolfishly. "I think forty some blood hungry werewolves will fit the bill quite nicely."

"But the wards," Remus tried to protest weakly, well aware that he was simply trying to buy time. "We wont be able to get past the wards-"

"My, my, you are a stupid one, aren't you? They're magical wards, are they not?"

"Yeah, but-"

"And," Greyback overrode him loudly. "Werewolves are immune to any form of magic, are they not?"

"Yeah-"

"Then there you go, now get going."

With a seconds hesitation, he glanced from Greyback's feral, glinting eyes to the door, but that was all he dared to stall before exiting with haste, his mind accelerating at a million miles a minute.

-

Remus stood on the outside of the door that lead to the underground, twisting maze of a hidden society. He counted the werewolves that flooded single file through the door, snarling and snapping at one another and more wolf now than they would ever be in there life during the rest of the month.

Nineteen

Even if Greyback had said to get all of the werewolves, Remus had purposely skipped over the younger children.

Twenty

He felt butterflies rise in his stomach and reflected that the last time he'd felt this way before a transformation was...Never.

Twenty-one

Remus leaned against the door that stood open to allow the others to crowd out of the musky den and into the freedom of the night air .

Twenty-two

Wait a sec…

He double checked number twenty-two and outwardly sighed. He left his post at the door to walk beside the short werewolf with a heavy hood that hid his face from view. Remus sighed again, dragged the boy out of line and to the side.

He spun him around to face him and brushed the hood back at the same time. Just as he expected, under the cover of the hood was Aaron's familiar blue eyed face.

"You're not going," Remus said quietly, jumping straight to the point just as Aaron opened his mouth to argue or explain himself. Whichever.

"Why not? Why can't I go?" The younger boy challenged.

"You're too young…This is dangerous…I don't want you going."

Remus hoped that Aaron caught the hidden message.

I don't want you to get hurt.

"That's bull," Aaron muttered, pulled his head up and started for the queue.

"Aaron, you're not-"

"Just keep on countin', Smoke, and pretend you didn't see me."

"Aaron," Remus hissed and pulled him back again with a little more force than was strictly needed. "You're not going, end of story. No arguing, go back inside. Now-"

"C'mon Uncle Remus," he said bitterly and Remus froze from the inside out.

He tried not to think about his adopted brother's son too much.

"Don't call me that, it's not gonna get me to change my mind."

"But that's what you are, aren't you?" Aaron answered haughtily, back to Remus with his arms crossed across his chest. "What would you like for me to call you then? Oh great creator? Oh master my maker?"

He also tried not to think about the night he'd hunted down his older adoptive brother's only son out of spiteful revenge.

Remus flinched.

"Not now, not now, Aaron-"

"Uncle-"

"Aaron David-"

"Remus."

"Lupin."

Aaron couldn't help but grin. He winked and gave Remus a thumbs up.

"Right back at you, Lupin."

"Aaron, please?"

The eight year old boy grew quiet.

"Why can't I go?"

Remus sucked in a deep breath and knelt down beside him. He took him by the shoulders and made their eyes meet.

"I don't want you to get hurt-"

"I wont-" Aaron insisted.

"You will."

"Please-"

"No."

"But-"

"I said no."

Aaron sighed. Remus sighed.

"I'd never let you do anything I knew wasn't safe."

"Oh, so being a werewolf is safe, is it?"

"Being a werewolf is perfectly safe. It's what you chose to do that's not. This is not one of those safe things."

Aaron grew quiet again turned around.

"I'll be inside."

He reached the door and turned back, blue eyes regarding Remus with an unreadable gaze.

"Don't be like that! It's only because I care about you!" Remus yelled and was relieved to see the little boy grin before he disappeared into the den once more.

Reluctantly, he joined the group of werewolves that had gathered outside. He stood a bit away from them and waited for Greyback's arrival, uneasily. He awaited the trip through the forest that would wrap around and come out of the Forbidden Forest, where they could invade the grounds of Hogwarts.

He shuddered and glanced at the darkening sky.

It was going to be one hell of a night.

-


	13. Chapter 13

Rating of R 

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

Beta read by the most wonderful shimi. For what's right, thank her. For what's wrong, blame me.

Blood Chronicles

-

When he stumble out to the one eyed, hump backed witch's statue, the last thing he expected was to be surrounded by a crowd of chattering students. That was exactly what he got.

Sirius stood in front of the statue, his face seven inches away from that of a very shocked James Potter. The cluster of students grew silent quickly, so quiet that all that could be heard was the collective murmur of steady breathing.

The black robed students in the back of the group stood on their toes in order to see what everyone else was gawking at. A few of them had their mouths open and others started to whisper and point him out to their friends. James was still too shocked to say a word.

"Well," Sirius said, clearing his throat and shifting on his feet uncomfortably. He hadn't known what to expect upon arriving back at school, but this had yet to pop into his head. "Isn't this…awkward."

There was a resounding thud as James' Potions and Transfiguration text books fell to the floor. It seemed as if when those four simple words came out of Sirius' mouth, James was assured that it really was his best friend that was standing in front of him.

"Sirius!" James hugged his friend that had been gone much too long tightly around the neck.

Sirius grinned and hugged him back, sighing in satisfaction that everything was finally right in the world.

"James, you dork, I've missed you, too."

"I'm so-" James started, releasing Sirius and taking a half step backwards.

He became aware of all the curious sets of eyes that were trained on the two of them and cleared his throat loudly, hazel eyes still on Sirius.

"Do you all mind?"

Apparently they didn't because not one of them moved. James sighed, grabbed Sirius by the forearm and hauled him though the crowd of gaping students. He led him down the hall and ignored all of the stares that the two of them got. James muttered something about how he was Head Boy and they still didn't give him any respect as they entered the dorm room.

"Honestly, you'd think they'd at least take me seriously," he finished as he opened the door and ushered Sirius inside.

Sirius stepped into the room that he'd grown so accustomed with before he'd been help hostage and grinned. Everything was exactly how he'd left it. Even his bed was still unmake from that morning that he'd…

As if in a trance, he made a bee line for his unmade bed a allowed himself to fall into its depths. He inhaled deeply and hugged his pillow tightly to his chest.

It was good to be home.

I never thought I'd even see a bed for the rest of my life, let alone lie on my own, He thought as his eyes opened to see James standing over his with a furrowed brow.

There was a long pause in which both boys just stared at one another, at a lost for what to say. Then the questions started to flow from James' mouth and there was no stopping them.

"Where have you been? What happened to you? Were you captured by Death Eaters, that's what everyone thought. Are you alright? You look thinner, are you hungry-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, there," Sirius stood and rested his hands on James' shoulders.

They both became silent again and Sirius' expression grew solemn as they sat on the edge of the four poster bed.

"I tracked down that pickpocket," he started quietly, fingers playing with the bed spread with averted eyes.

"You found him?"

"Please don't stop me, Prongs. If I don't say this all now, I'll ever be able to say it again."

That's how James came to sit quietly on Sirius' bed, listening as his friend spilled every detail to him about his little adventure. Silver eyes never met James' the entire time and when he finished, James either wouldn't or couldn't say another word.

"Sirius, I-"

"I really don't want to talk about it."

"Um…Food? You've gotta be hungry after-" a smoldering look from his dark haired companion cut the rest of his sentence away. "After…That and all. Up for a bite to eat?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

It was an awkward trip down the Great Hall, what with the other students well aware of Sirius' return. When James started for the door, he turned to Sirius, words spilling form his mouth quickly.

"I missed you so much, Padfoot, and I'm so glad you're back and okay," his head turned in an attempt to hide the unshed tears that threatened to fall. "I thought that…"

James couldn't bring himself to say it.

"James," Sirius sighed and tilted his head up so that they're eyes could meet. "I'm okay. I'll be okay. Everything'll be okay."

James nodded and turned back toward the double doors. He turned back sharply and hugged his friend again.

"This whole getting captured by werewolves thing," he whispered, voice trying to sound amused, but failed when it came out all chocked up.

"Yeah?"

"Don't do that again."

-

Shivers raced up and down his spine that had nothing to do with the fact that he was soaked up to the waist after wadding through the river that marked the halfway mark to Hogwarts. Remus trailed behind the others, mind racing and eyes on the ground. He trusted his feet to carry him on the well known path to the school.

They'd crossed the river fifteen minutes ago and before he knew it, the others ahead of him were dropping to their knees and were screaming and clawing at the ground. Remus blinked, feeling his own transformation over taking him and dropped sharply to the ground to avoid falling down.

It only took a short span of two minutes before a golden eyes wolf braced itself in his place.

Smoke yawned and trotted to the head of the pack, snapping and growling at the other wolves to keep them on the right path. He came level with Greyback's well muscled, black body, halted, and waited. The werewolves stopped growling and snarling and fell in at once.

Smoke couldn't help but mentally roll his eyes. His legs trembled to tare into the night.

Greyback surveyed the well formed pack before him, noting with pleasure how they trembled from his gaze. He turned his back on them and loped onward, clearing a fallen tree with ease and howling.

Great, let them know we're out here, just wonderful, Smoke thought and surged after him.

As they ran the trees started to thin out. It wasn't long before the trees were behind them and the school loomed ahead of them, a medieval thatched castle. The silver wolf topped the peek of a slopping hill that gave him a clear overlook of the grounds. His body was still tingling from the after shower of magic that had rippled over him as he penetrated the wards.

Smoke shook his head and watched as Greyback herded his pack onto the main grounds. It made his stomach sick at the thought of using live bait. His eyes twitched as he heard the pounding of massive paws behind him. He didn't need to turn his head or feel the sharp nip at his hindquarters to know that Greyback had arrived.

The wolf took a deep breath and then slip down the far side of the hill, opting for a back entrance. A low growl sounded above him and Greyback cleared the hill to the bottom in one effortless leap. He landed in front of the younger wolf and snapped razor sharp teeth in his face. Smoke's hackles rose in a silent threat.

Goddammit, if we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it my way-

Apparently not, for a second later Smoke found himself being hauled back by the scruff of his neck like a puppy in the opposite direction. Toward the wall length windows of the Great Hall.

Smoke struggled out of the alpha's grip and glared again the backdrop of howling, fighting werewolves and the gasp of onlookers in the windows above them. Greyback turned back to face him and when he saw the other wolf's canines flashing, tackled him to the ground and held him fast.

Smoke was spoiling for a fight at that point and didn't stay quietly. Greyback's teeth snapped around his muzzle to keep him quiet and then, with a last parting snarl, got off of him and bolted straight for one of the glass windows.

The other wolf gave chase, tongue lapping at the sides of his muzzle where Greyback's teeth had been and closed the distance between them. Before he knew it they were directly in front of the window.

He make a grad at one of Greyback's hind legs, but the other wolf leapt upward and through the window. Smoke collected himself and sprang forward with just as much ease.

Smoke could feel the shattered, stained glass crunching under his paws as he landed and ran a few more strides before all four of his legs were under him and could stop. There was noise everywhere, so much noise that he nearly winced from it all.

The clatter as silverware and dishes fell to the floor, the scraping of heavy, wooden benches against the stone floor, the hysterical screaming of the students all running and clawing at the double doors in an attempt to get out. He took to note that not a single teacher was present. It seemed as if their distraction had worked wonderfully. What was even more, it looked as if the teachers had bolted the students inside of the Hall to keep them out of harms way.

What a perfect picture of irony.

His eyes swept the scene in a matter of seconds and it didn't take him long to pick Sirius out to the panicking crowd. It took just as long for Greyback to register him, too.

The black wolf growled and charged straight for him, jaws working around some invisible prey. The students scattered with fright from the werewolf's path and backed against the walls. Some smashed the remaining windows with the wooden benches and made a hurried escape through them.

Sirius stood, fixed on the ground, with both hands on the wand extended in front of him and his eyes closed. A black haired boy was standing next to him, pulling frantically at his arm and screaming that is wasn't worth it. Smoke froze. He knew that look, knew when Sirius was going to change into this canine counterpart.

No, no, no, no! You fool! You don't have the time!

And neither did Smoke have the time required to reach him before Greyback could. His mind shut down completely. Smokes' great silver head rose so that his nose pointed to the simulated ceiling and he howled.

Howled high that dropped gradually in pitch. It sent shivers and tremors racing down every body in the entire Hall. He howled so that he poured his entire soul, his very being into that one earth shattering, mournful sound.

He didn't know what he was trying to do in baying like that. But one thing was for sure.

It worked.

Greyback skidded to a stop and turned his head to look at him. His golden eyes help a silent question that only the other wolf could read.

What is it?

And Smoke just grinned the best he could right back at him and used cocky body language to answer him.

Gotcha.

-


	14. Chapter 14

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

I'm sorry for any mistakes you may find. I know that they're there, so no need to point them out. The most I can do is apologize. This has not been beta read but I really wanted to get the chapter out so I'd thought I'd give it to you guys anyway.  
Please do not be afraid to review, they make my day.

Blood Chronicles

-

The other wolf's head cocked and his expression became one of confusion.

What the-

And then the black wolf was tumbling across the floor as the enormous dog shouldered him roughly and took up a snarling position in front of the black haired boy that had been tugging on his arm. 

Footing regained, Greyback's hair stood on end and his pink, red stained tongue, poked out to lick the blood from the corner of his mouth. His golden eyes went from the challenger opposite to him to Smoke. He snapped his teeth and tossed his head at the dog. Smoke gritted his teeth together and advanced slowly.

The silver wolf and the black wolf circled opposite one another, with the prey focused in the middle. They kept the boy and the dog barred in, with flashing teeth and ignored all the other frenzied people in the room.

They zeroed out the two in the middle of the circle and slowly started to creep closer and closer to them with each circuit that was completed. Padfoot growled, spittle forming in the corner of his mouth as he paced tightly around James to keep him shielded from the prowlers. 

In perfect symmetry, the wolves lunged in, separating the pair. Smoke stared down Padfoot with radiant golden eyes that held deadly human intelligence. He felt more than saw as those accusing silver orbs hardened in disgust as they locked with his.

How could you do this? Why are you doing this?

Smoke didn't offer an answer as he leapt at the opposing canine. His razor claws flexed and prepared to clench around his rivals back when something slammed into his side and sent him rolling on the ground.

He blinded and just managed to roll away before a pair of hooves crashed onto the floor where he'd been only a second before. Smoke found his footing quickly.

When he looked up, it was to come face to face with a snow white stag with the biggest rack he'd ever seen. Its eyes were large and almond shaped, its nostrils flared. Their noses were so close that if he would have shifted a single muscle he would have brushed with the other animal. 

The noble stag look down his long face and snorted in the wolf's face. 

Smoke fell back to sit on his haunches and blinked up at the great mammoth of a monster that was towering over him. He flashed his teeth threateningly, snarled, and gained all fours again.

The stag reared and pawed the air, screaming and dancing on the stones of the floors. Smoke darted beneath him and snapped at the tender, velvet deer stomach that was exposed to him. He felt blood in his mouth and just narrowly avoided a collision with one of the stag's hooves before he dipped between its hind legs and made another charge at Padfoot.

If I could just stage a fight with him long enough for them to get those doors open.

As he ran, he cleared over turned benches and took a second to register that heir battle ground was student free.

Good, he thought with a mental snort. The last thing we need is a bunch of brats gettin in our way-

His train of thought was cut off as he stumbled. Smoke glanced down briefly before continuing on to see what he'd tripped over in the first place. 

Apparently not all of the students had made it out. A little girl with red hair laid face down in her own blood on the floor. Smoke pushed the image from his mind as he ran on and jumped into the fray that was Padfoot, Greyback, and much, too much blood.

They accepted him into their battle and it was all for oneself. They were locked jaw to jaw, fang to fang, claws ripping at muzzles, hackles and the soft under flesh of the stomach. The dog fight went on for another few minutes with no one getting the upper hand when there was a loud banging sound.

The canines leapt apart, bodies and mouths tainted with enemy blood, eyes alight with rancor and wounds that were wide and deep. There was a second bang and all three heads turned to the double doors.

The second bang was when the second of the two double doors was flung open and hit the wall behind it. A man with a wild tangle of a beard peered inside, a pink umbrella extended in front of him. He called out in a rough voice, checking if anyone was still left in the room.

The three canines' eyes widened, all knowing what the open doors meant.

To Padfoot it was freedom, the best thing he'd ever seen. To the two werewolves it couldn't mean anymore of the opposite. Or at least for Greyback.

Greyback started for Padfoot again, but before he could grab him the black dog bolted out of the Hall. Greyback howled and tore after him, Smoke ignored the pains in his body and charged after the pair of them.

The man who had first opened the doors was knocked aside as the three canines tore past him. Greyback turned towards the front doors, expecting the dog to run there and cut him off. He pulled to a stop in front of the door just before Padfoot did.

They stared one another down, the wolf grinning slyly the best he could in victory.

Padfoot grinned right back.

He wheeled around and flew up the marble staircase behind him. His nails clicked as he skidded down the left had corridor that branched off of the staircase landing. 

Greyback blinked in surprise, but when he saw Smoke climbing the stairs in case, he snapped out of it. He howled again in fury and took off again, sharp claws clicking against the cold, hard floor.

Smoke ran blindly down the left hand corridor, turning down hallways left and right as he went. At one point he heard Greyback go down a different corridor behind him. He took two more rights before he came to a dead end with still no sign of Padfoot.

He slumped back on his haunches and sighed.

It was no use.

They were running in unknown territory now. He could deal with fighting in a large, square room. The hiding places were very limited and there was no where to run. 

But now.

His gaze cast around, landing on six different doors.

And this is only on one end of one hallway.

They were playing by Padfoot's rules now.

Well, let's just hope I find him before Greyback does.

He turned and padded down the dark hallway, eyes, ears, and nose tuned to catch any hint of his quarry. Smoke reached the head of the corridor and looked left, right, and straight ahead.

Ennie, mennie, minnie, moe.

He went straight.

Smoke had always enjoyed a challenge, but an impossible one? 

He trotted, ears perked, back down the hallway and took a right. 

And was met with a dead end.

Okay so it must be...

He went back to the junction and took a right.

For hours he paced the corridors, nose skimming the ground. He couldn't pick up a clear sent, over one-thousand people called this castle home and Padfoot didn't make an appearance all too often. Everything was silent and at each turn he tensed, expecting to meet one of the others, friend or supposed foe.

He turned another corner and kept on going. Smoke froze at the tingling in his spine.

No, I can't have been out that long. He thought in a panic and ran to the nearest window, the pain in his ribs jabbing fiercely.

He stood in front of the window, front paws resting on the sill and eyes resting on the full orb that was the moon. 

The moon that was sinking lower.

He felt his stomach drop and turned to bolt down the corridor to finish this wild goose chase before it was too late. Just as he turned from the window, his sensitive ears picked up a sound that made him freeze all over again.

Hooves.

Hooves clicking slowly against the stone floor. Right down the corridor.

Smoke hid in the shadows and watched as the white stag that had challenged him in the Hall walked by his hiding place. It had dried blood splattered on its stomach and side.

The wolf's muscles tensed in perpetration to pounce when another sound held him fast.

The sound of sharp claws on the floor. 

Trembling with apprehension, he waited until Padfoot came to pass as well. The dog whimpered and trotted to the stags side, nudging him with his cold nose and leading the weary animal on. They turned down the corridor to the right and Smoke counted to ten and then gave silent chase after them.

He matched his strides with those of Padfoot's so that his down steps would not be heard.

Smoke followed then through the winding, twisting hallways until they came to a familiar sight. The double doors of the Great Hall. 

He slipped in after them and stopped sharply when they did in front of him. The two Animagi blocked his path, but he could tell by their tensed and tightened muscles that something was up. Smoke cocked his head and was starting to wonder what had caused them to stop so suddenly when he didn't have to wonder any more. Because he could hear what had caused them to stop.

A low, rusty growl that he could place in a heart beat. One that he had memorized all of the complex pitches of at a young age.

Greyback.

Sly ole dog you.

The older wolf had double backed, knowing that he wouldn't be able to find his enemy on an unknown playing field, and had lay in wait silently. 

He could hear what he couldn't see, Greyback charging at the dog and the stag. They leapt apart and the black wolf collided headfirst with Smoke. 

Smoke yelped and stumbled back as Greyback snapped at him and made another leap for Padfoot.

He started forward as well, but before he'd even taken three strides, froze for a third time. His body was shaking.

Six minutes.

Greyback had also slowed considerably. He was panting.

Five minutes.

Weakly, Greyback gave chase again, not allowing the setting moon to get in his way. Padfoot dodged him and his slowing agility easily.

Four minutes.

The black wolf stopped in the middle of the Hall, eyes wide and glanced from Padfoot to the broken windows/ 

Two minutes. 

Eyes rolling, Greyback bolted for one of the windows, leapt though it and called to his pack. Like a shadow, he fled across the grounds, yipping werewolves following closely in his wake.

Smoke felt his hair stand on end and scrambled for the window and his freedom. 

One minute.

His muscles collected, but before he could jump, Padfoot was on top of him. Smoke thrashed and snarled, feeling the last of the moon's binds loosening, but the black dog held him fast.

Padfoot dug his claws into the wolf's back and weighed him down to the floor. The silver wolf gave a last howl that was more of a scream than anything and fell limp as the transformation twisted and molded him back to how he'd been before sunset.

The change complete, Remus laid where the wolf had, panting and still clawing at the ground to pull himself out from under Padfoot.

"Greyback!" He screamed hoarsely, hand reaching toward the shattered window. 

His hand fell limp and his cradled his head into its embrace, tears soaking the skin.

"Dad," a quiet sob that came from his raw and abused vocal cords.

And then his world went black and Remus knew nothing but a dark abyss of obliteration.

- 


	15. Chapter 15

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

I'm sorry for any mistakes you may find. I know that they're there, so no need to point them out. The most I can do is apologize. This has not been beta read but I really wanted to get the chapter out so I'd thought I'd give it to you guys anyway.  
Please do not be afraid to review, they make my day.

Blood Chronicles

-

His unconsciousness first registered the cold and solid weight that encircled his wrists. His mouth chocked out a groan and he rolled to his side, but when he tried to cover his face with his hands, found that they would not budge. He pulled at his hands to free them but winced when the heavy, insistent weight cut into his flesh.

Force.

Force was the next thing that he could register as a spoon loaded with a foul liquid forced its way through his resistant lips. Remus gagged and forced the foreign object out of his mouth as his head jerked violently to the side.

He whimpered and tried to thrash out of the unseen bonds that held him down. From all of his desperate movement, a wide wound on his side opened up. Golden eyes snapped open when he felt a cool, stinging salve tending to the reopened gash.

The people crowding around his bed all jumped back when he awoke. Confused, Remus panicked and pulled violently against his bonds. They pulled back from him at once, heads bent and voices low as they exchanged concerned conversation.

Why am I here? Where is here? Who the fuck are these jack offs? He thought and glared with hazy eyes at the group that regarded him like a frog spread out on an examination table and the strange, unfamiliar room.

It was clean, much too clean. White splashed everywhere, from the walls to the tiled floor, to the linen sheets on the beds that lined the walls, and even the row of wall length medicine cabinets that covered the far wall. All the white was harsh on his eyes. He shut them and turned his head away from the unfamiliar surroundings.

Just as fast as he shut them, they sprang back open. The last thing he'd seen before his eyes had closed had been a familiar sight among unfamiliar ones. Silver eyes behind the gawking, whispering assemblage.

And in that instant, everything was playing in his mind like a black and white movie. The full moon, that bloody deer, long seemingly everlasting hallways, and Padfoot. Padfoot. The dog that had held him back.

Sirius holding him back.

"I hate you," he whispered, golden orbs seeing past those of the starring onlookers to lock with Sirius'.

The same three words poured form his lips over and over again as the picture of Padfoot, of Sirius, keeping him from escaping flashed before his mind's eye. Each time he said them, they grew in degrees of truth, volume, and harshness. He said them until he didn't say them anymore, but screamed them.

Screamed and thrashed so hard that the bed rocked unsteadily on the floor. The entire time he held the other boy's gaze.

"I hate you!"

Remus hadn't been able to say 'I love you' because love was something that he didn't understand, something that he didn't remember, and something that he'd never experienced for the vast majority of his life. His early years were lost to him, anyway.

He could say hate because he was familiar with it. It was a regular word in his everyday vocabulary. And every time he said it, it rang true to the core. And over his time with the aggressive werewolf, Sirius had learned that, had learn it well. And that's what hurt the most. Having Remus say those three words was what him the most.

Hurt him worse than Remus' betrayal ever could. Because he knew Remus meant every last word.

He was still screaming it when one of the people in the group yelled for a syringe. He still screamed when four of them tried to hold him still while a fifth approached him cautiously with a needle filled to the brim with a sickly, pale liquid. He screamed as they all moved to hold him down because four people was not enough for the job. Still screamed as the pale liquid was injected into his bloodstream through the crook of his elbow.

He paused to yelp and yell an array of obscenities at the man with the now empty syringe. Then he returned to yelling at Sirius again, the fast acting sedative drug settling into his system completely and not having an effect. Alarmed, the syringe was filled again for a second, more powerful dose.

Remus broke off, and his eyes narrowed on the man with the goatee that was approaching him again.

"Get that damn thing away from me, you-" Remus growled, and gritted his teeth as the second dose was injected.

His eyes rolled back momentarily in his skull, and then they righted themselves again and he took up screaming. The second dose didn't have much of a desired effect on him. It slurred his speech and changed words into raw screaming, but it showed no intention of calming him.

It took a third one until the drug finally kicked in. Remus laid quietly back against the bed he was chined to. His breathing was staggered and his eyes feel as he entered a drug induced, uneasy sleep.

-

_I hate you._

Sirius couldn't shake the words that rang in his ears and sent shivers coursing through his body. It had seemed as if they were the only two in the entire room. Just him and Remus.

He couldn't even begin to describe how deep those words had cut him. His mind was still clouded and it seemed as if the night before had all just been some crazy, mixed up nightmare that he'd viewed from the side lines.

Now seeing Remus on a hospital bed in Hogwarts' infirmary with cuts and bruises marring his pale skin, and new ones being added with the chains bound him. Seeing him with gashes, claw marks, and jagged teeth crescent scars, made everything so real.

He thought back to his own bandage covered body, underneath which lay bloody, healing wounds. Sirius glanced at the other end of the hospital ward to where James was arguing with a healer from St. Mungos' that he was perfectly fine. Sirius watched James as he tried to left himself as if to prove his point. James yelled faintly and fell back to the white sheeted bed in a boneless heap.

_I can't believe he'd do this to me,_ Sirius thought, eyes swiveling around to Remus' troubled even in sleep face. _I'm his friend...Goddammit, I told him I love him...and he tried to kill me last night._

His hands curled into fists at his side.

_If he ever wakes up- _Sirius shook his head and quickly corrected himself. _When. When he wakes up, he'll never hear the end of this, fucking idiot._

Sirius startled and jumped around when he felt a bony hand rest gently on his shoulder. Silver eyes met a pair of blue behind half moon glasses.

"Hello, professor." The words came automatically, his ind focused on other matters.

"Mr. Black," Dumbledore returned with a polite nod of his head.

"Sirius, please. Mr. Black makes me feel so old."

"As you wish, Mr. Black," he said with a true smile. "Lemon drop?"

"No thanks. I don't have much of an appetite." Sirius' eyes shifted to Remus and Dumbledore followed his gaze.

"Ah," he said softly, leading his student to a quiet corner away from the others. "That's what I'd like to have a work with you about."

Sirius' head snapped from Remus' muttering and tossing form to his Headmaster's weary eyes. He looked so old. It was the first him Sirius had ever seen him look his age.

"What about him?"

"Mr. Potter has kindly provided me with your whereabouts of the past two months."

Sirius groaned inwardly and managed a short lived glare in the direction of his best friend.

"Were you not planning on telling me yourself?" Dumbledore asked, and Sirius was surprised to find a hidden note of hurt in his tone.

"No, no that's not it. I just wish I'd have been the one to tell you...I mean, it was _me _after all." Which was half true, he didn't really plan on telling anyone, but if so be it, Sirius wanted it to come from him and no one else. That was how things got so mixed up, jumping from one person to another.

"I feel safe to say that he intended no harm and only had your best intentions in mind."

"Yeah, yeah," Sirius sighed and ran a hand through his hair, wishing for more than anything that their uncomfortable conversation would be put out of its misery. "He normally does."

"That's the troubled cost of being a friend, I'm afraid," he said around a small smile. Sirius glanced back at Remus over his shoulder.

"I don't think it effects all of them," Sirius whispered, mouth just forming the words, too quietly for Dumbledore to hear.

"I'd like to thank you."

"Thank me?" One slender eyebrow rose as he turned to face his headmaster completely. "For what?"

"For protecting your peers, of course."

Sirius felt something inside of him twinge and thought to himself that his peers safety hadn't even crossed his mind at the time. He didn't have the _time_ to think about them.

"Um...Yeah, it was no big deal."

His eyes couldn't quite meet the older man's.

"I'd also," here he dropped his voice to a whisper, with the slightest hint of a mischievous smile. "Like to know how long it took you and Mr. Potter to accomplish such a magnificent and complex spell?"

Sirius' cheeks burned at having Padfoot's identity found out. He had known it unavoidable what with publicly exposing himself, but had still hoped for small miracles.

"My dear boy, you are not in trouble, but now I feel justice at finding the culprit who chased the referee across the Quidditch field during the Slytherin, Ravenclaw match last year." He mulled this information over.

"Three years, sir."

"Impressive, very impressive," Dumbledore mumbled to himself.

"I'm not gonna be expelled over this, am I?"

Dumbledore chuckled at the look of pure horror on his face.

"Of course not."

Sirius visibly felt his breath leave him in a relieved exhale. A moment of silence reigned

"We're moving him to Headquarters as soon as Alastor gets here...I hope he comes soon." Dumbledore looked over Sirius' shoulder at the young werewolf that was already starting to reemerge from his drugged sleep. "There's no telling how long he'll be out."

"Moody's coming?" Sirius asked, not giving a damn if the grizzled Auror came or not.

"As soon as he wraps up at the Ministry, yes," he answered quietly, pensive as he watched Remus break off his sleep talk and shout something that sounded a lot like French. The silence came to visit once more.

"You may come, if you'd like. I would never deny you considering what must have happened to you." Sirius snorted, thinking of the nights they'd fallen asleep under the blankets, exhausted.

"It was awful, let me tell you," Sirius whispered.

"I said if you'd like, it is an invitation. Besides you are very much wrapped up in this and are a member of the Order just the same."

"I'll think on that."

"Good, well..." He sighed as Remus' golden, wide and wild eyes snapped open. Remus returned to screaming in earnest. First, only raw sounds that later evolved into words of hate. "Must go tend to that. Take care, Sirius, and please do consider my offer."

Sirius nodded, his eyes following Dumbledore and the group that formed around him.

They talked in low voices again, Remus' screaming newly turned to a low, continuous growl as their backdrop. A tall black man produced another needle and filled it with the sickly liquid again, this time mixing another one in with it. Six men approached him slowly, grabbing at Remus to still him.

Remus snarled and his eyes flashed as one pinned his shoulders down roughly. His hands worked reverently and the six of them yelled and scrambled away from him when he managed to yank one of his hands free.

The air was cut with yelled orders as Remus struggled to free his other hand. He grabbed the needle from the black man and rammed it into the mans developed bisect. The man stumbled back, eyes squinted in pain as he tried to pull the needle that had been embedded nearly all the way into his skin out.

Sirius weaved across the room and grabbed Remus harshly by his free wrist. Eyes lit with privative fire turned on him and flashed when they registered who was holding him.

"You-" Remus growled, but he was cut off as a blast of red light flew under Sirius' arm and hit him square in the chest.

His eyes rolled and he slumped forward into Sirius and for the first time since he'd arrived in the hospital wing, lay sill.

All heads in the room turned to look in the direction that the stunning spell had come from. In the doorway, putting his wand away, stood Alastor Moody.

"We've no time for meaningless games," he muttered to himself. "Well?" Moody snapped with impatience at those just standing and gaping at him in a voice that could have put a grizzly bear to shame. "What are you standing around for? Let's do this."

-


	16. Chapter 16

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

I'm sorry for any mistakes you may find. I know that they're there, so no need to point them out. The most I can do is apologize. This has not been beta read but I really wanted to get the chapter out so I'd thought I'd give it to you guys anyway.

Please do not be afraid to review, they make my day.

Blood Chronicles

-

Before his eyes could open he could tell that something was wrong. Something was different. He could _sense_ it. For one, his wrists weren't bound together, even if he could still feel the soreness that their presence had left in remembrance.

Then there was the warmth. It was almost too warm to call comfortable, yet not enough to be hot. The smell of stale whiskey and tobacco hit his nose and made him open his eyes wide. This time he was in a different room, this one white as well, with wallpaper that was pealing at the top corners, worn and torn in places.

_No wonder I'm so warm_

Golden eyes fell on the heavy navy jacket that was three sizes too big for him. It completely engulfed him, swallowing him whole and draped over his shoulders. Remus' nose twitched when he realized the coat was also where the sent of whiskey and tobacco came from.

He huddled down into it and pulled the hood up over his head. Too large eyes returned to evaluating the foreign environment.

The room was bare except for a naked light bulb that hung on a long rope from the center of the ceiling.

Remus' nose told him before his eyes could that he was not alone. Blinking his world into focus, Remus saw that a familiar shape stood across from him on the opposite side of the room, partly hidden in shadows that the light bulb couldn't reach.

"Sirius?" His voice was hoarse, unsure, quiet.

"Finally awake, are you?" Sirius' voice was everything that Remus' wasn't. Hostile and harsh.

"What are you doing here? Where is here? Where am I? What happened?" Remus asked, rubbing at his lower collar bone where Moody's stunning spell had hit him.

"I'm here because I wanted to talk to _you_, you ungrateful sorry-" the Animagus spat.

All of a sudden Remus was seeing Sirius and hearing Greyback.

"_Stop calling me that_."

With astonishing speed for someone who should have been extremely physically weak, Remus shot across the room and grabbed Sirius by the shoulders.

"_Stop fucking saying that. I've heard it a million and fucking one times." _Remus' thumbs pushed at each end of the others wind pipe to get the words to stop flowing from his mouth.

Sirius gaged, wrapped his foot around Remus' ankles and pulled them out form under him.

"Stop it," Sirius hissed, breath regained and held Remus' hands above his head so he couldn't try to strangle him again. "Just stop it. Do you remember what happened last time? Do you want that to happen again?"

He was hoping that Remus would say yes.

"You never know, maybe I do. You're pretty when you're under me," Remus growled and turned his head to bite the other teen's wrist.

Sharp canine teeth broke the skin and blood flowed, but Sirius bit his lip and did not let go.

"I need to talk to you," Sirius ground out between clenched teeth. Remus pulled his teeth free.

"Funny, I thought you were."

"Stop being such a smart ass. I meant about last night."

"What about it?" He tried to get his feet under Sirius' stomach to try and push him off.

"Well, I dunno. Maybe about the fact that you _tried to kill me_."

Sirius' yell echoed around the tiny, four walled room. Remus locked eyes with him. Silent and no longer struggling.

"If I'd wanted you dead, you would _be_ dead."

"Then why aren't I?" Sirius snarled. "Losing your touch, _Smoke_?"

"Did the possibility ever cross your mind that I _didn't _want you dead, _Padfoot_?"

Sirius never missed a returning beat. "_You kinda convinced me you wanted me dead when you lunged for my throat_."

"If I hadn't, who do you think would have?"

Sirius' mouth closed slowly and he could not come up with an answer.

"Exactly-"

"Why'd you even go in the first place?"

Remus shrugged. "Figured if I went then maybe you'd stand a chance of coming out alive...and besides," he gave a small smile. "I've never seen Hogwarts before."

"Remus, I didn't-"

The werewolf's eyes flashed and he struggled violently. "While we're asking questions," he growled in a flash of teeth. "Why did you hold me back? Why'd you condemn me to this prison?"

"I thought that-"

"And you know what goddammit. I'm sick of being _RESTRAINED! FIRST GREYBACK, THEN THE FUCKING BLOOD BOND, THEN YOU, THEN I HAVE CHAINS HOLDING ME DOWN, AND NOW FUCKING YOU AGAIN!"_

Remus' voice started low and ended up in a scream so that it shook the room and he threw Sirius off of him and sprang to his feet. He had to double up the sleeves of the navy coat in order to free his hands.

"I'm tired of it. I'm sick of it."

"Rem-"

"I thought we were friends."

"We are."

"Then why did you _hold me back_."

"I..." Sirius' voice trailed off.

"You what?" Remus snapped lowly, two flickers of golden light shining from the shadows beneath the navy hood.

"I...I thought you were trying to kill me-"

"Yes," Remus said with forced calmness. "We've already established this. And I've already told you I wasn't. But what does that have to do with preventing me from escaping. Please do tell."

"I wanted...Revenge," Sirius muttered, eyes averted.

"Revenge. _Revenge._"

"I wanted to hurt you like you hurt me-"

"All for _fucking revenge_. _I'm stuck here for no reason._"

Remus was yelling again. Sirius glanced alarmed at the door and darted forward. One hand grabbed Remus' upper arm and the other clasped over his mouth.

"Shut up, Remus. Just _be quiet and shut up._ They'll hear you...And we don't want that."

Remus eyes widened and he slapped Sirius' hand away.

"Don't touch me. I'm tired of all you people thinking you can touch me and keep me down. And I'll _YELL ALL THE FUCK I WANT!_"

The white wooden door with the imitate gold colored knob flew open and two people burst into the room with wands at the ready. Sirius whirled around to see Moody standing on the other side of the room with a syllable of an incantation already on the tip of his tongue. Sirius' eyes widened when he realized what spell the Head Auror of Britain was going to use.

_No no no no no no no no. Not good. _Sirius thought frantically.

"Moody, _no!" _He yelled just as thin, snake like ropes wound around Remus' body and held him fast.

Sirius wasn't surprised as Remus' eyes became a cocktail of panic and fury. He yelled louder in a voice that was more Smoke than Remus.

Another wave of the wand and a piece of rope slipped between his lips and tied at the back of his head to quiet him.

"Take care of him," Moody growled at the other Auror as he turned sharply on Sirius.

"What are you doing in here, Black?" He snapped as he hulled him out of the room.

"I just-"

"How stupid are you? What were you thinking? Going in there by yourself without any kind of backup. I thought I taught you better than that."

"Well, I kinda wanted our conversation to be a bit private, and that's hard to do with backup," Sirius said dryly.

Moody shook his head. "You okay?"

Sirius nodded.

"Good...That's the last think we need on our hands."

"What are you doing down here anyway?"

"Dumbledore wants some questions answered, and who better to do it then the master of question and answers himself?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "The only reason you _get_ answers is because you scare 'em outta people."

"Worked in the past so I don't see why i should stop."

"I wanna-"

Moody never found out what Sirius wanted for at that moment there was the sickening crack of something breaking beyond the white door and a pained yell to go with it.

"_Get your hands off me. Don't touch me." _Remus' voice was back. Either he had managed to slip the rope out of his mouth or he'd gnawed through it.

Moody sighed, ran a hand through his graying hair, drew his wand, and made toward the door.

"If you want something done right," he muttered. "Then you gotta do it yourself."

"Wait," Sirius said as Moody's hand reached for the door knob.

"Now what is it?"

"Just...Just let me go in there."

"Are you crazy? He'll tare your bloody head off. Let me handle this, Black."

"No he wont. I'll get him to clam down better than you can."

"I highly doubt that," Moody's eyes shifted toward the door where Remus had started screaming bloody murder again.

"Let me talk to him."

"I think you've done enough talking for one day."

"C'mon-"

"Fine, but I'm going in with you."

"What? No."

"Then you're not."

Sirius groaned. "Fine, fine. Come in then, but don't _interrupt me_."

Moody shrugged and opened the door. "Whatever you say, Black."

The door swung inward and out stumbled the other Auror. Both of his bloody hands were clutched at his jaw and his eyes were wide.

"Broken jaw?" Moody asked his mute colleague. He nodded. "Well, I'd fix myself, but I can't promise you it'd come out right."

The second Auror shook his head frantically and took off down the hallway.

Sirius pushed past Moody and started for the werewolf who was still struggling against the rope that was constricting his body and starting to cut into his skin.

"Hey...Hey, clam down. It's only me." Golden eyes focused on the sable haired boy in front of him and Remus' shoulders lost some of their tension. "Better."

"Take them off." It was a shaky command. "Take them off now."

"Alright, but you have to promise me something first-"

"Sure, I promise. Now get 'em off me."

"You haven't even heard my proposal yet."

"Don't care-" Remus' eyes focused over Sirius' shoulder and narrowed. "Who the hell is that?"

Sirius glanced over his shoulder quickly to see Moody standing a few feet behind him, tapping the tip of his want into an up turned palm.

"No one, don't worry about it-"

"Get him out of here."

"It's okay, he's not going to do anything."

"_Out. Get him the fuck out of here and the fuck away from me."_

"Remus, stop-"

"_No. Out. Out out out."_

Moody rolled his eyes and grabbed Sirius by the shoulder.

"Great job, kid, you made things worse."

"He's just freaked about you being in here. If you'd just-"

"Nope. Remember our deal? I'm in here or you're not."

"That was a deal? When did I agree to said deal?"

"When you said fine," the Auror said while steering him toward the door by the shoulders.

"What are you gonna do?"

"I already told you. Get answers. Order stuff."

"I'm a member, too."

"I don't want an audience.":

Moody shoved him out of the room and placed a seal on the door so that only he could open it.

"Shut up," he spat, rounding on Remus and conjuring up a chair.

"Not until you're gone," Remus growled. "Go away and leave me the fuck alone."

"Healthy temper you've got there." Moody advanced slowly and cautiously.

"So I've heard."

"Sit," Moody ordered.

Remus' eyes narrowed. "I'm not a dog."

"You are until you prove you're not."

Moody pushed him down into the straight backed chair and made sure that he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

-


	17. Chapter 17

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

I'm sorry for any mistakes you may find. I know that they're there, so no need to point them out. The most I can do is apologize. This has not been beta read but I really wanted to get the chapter out so I'd thought I'd give it to you guys anyway.

Please do not be afraid to review, they make my day.

Blood Chronicles

-

"Alright," the Auror sighed, made a more comfortable seat for himself and sat down heavily.

"Now," he said, fishing through his pocket while his beady eyes never left Remus. "We can do this the easy way," he murmured while pulling a fingerprint spotted, glass phial out of his pocket. "Or." The cork flew off and rolled to the floor with a tiny pop like miniature gunfire. "We can do this the hard way. I really don't care which. You decide."

"What do you want?" Remus growled, the hands behind his back working to untie himself from his tangled prison and his eyes hard as ice yet one hundred times hotter.

"Just some questions answered," Moody replied casually, capping the tiny glass bottle with his index finger and shaking it.

"Go to hell."

"The hard way it is then." A smirk lit his battle wounded face. "Good...I like it that way."

Remus snorted. "I've always liked a challenge myself...But I think you'll find me one that you can't handle."

Moody didn't waste any time on words that would only be thrown around like a volleyball rally. His rough hands grabbed the younger boy by the chin and forced his head to tilt back. Remus whimpered as Moody forced a thumb through his protesting lips and pried his mouth open.

The lip of the vial tipped over his bottom lip and the clear liquid within slid thickly down his throat. Remus' eyes went wide and he gagged, forcing his throat to constrict and held the strong tasting liquid in his mouth.

"Swallow," Moody growled, wand pressed tight to the werewolf's throat.

Remus shook his head and spoke with slurred words around the truth serum.

"No way in hell. What is this stuff?" A clear dribble streaked from the corner of his mouth to his chin.

"Water, now swallow-"

"This isn't _water._"

"Either swallow or I'll _make you swallow._"

"I'd like to see you try."

The tip of Moody's wand pressed tighter against his skin. "That could easily be arranged."

Remus gasped, but his prise would not let him give the old Auror the pleasure of winning their little battle of wills and wits. "Is that the best you've got?"

"Not even close."

Rough fingers tried to squeeze it down his throat. Remus countered Moody by spitting it up in his face. Moody sprung back, face dripping with the clear potion and swore. He moped up his face with a red handkerchief and stood in front of Remus, digging through his pocket again and muttering to himself.

"Damn werewolves..."

"I could _hear_ that, you know," Remus remarked dryly. "Us damn werewolves have very acute hearing."

"I don't know _what _I was thinking," Moody muttered and withdrew a dirty needle form his pocket. "Should have just injected it."

At the sight of the needle being filled with more of the foul liquid that had invaded his mouth, Remus eyes widened. He did not like those things very much.

"No...Don't. I'll take it, just don't-" Remus broke off and squeezed his eyes shut as the needle tip broke his skin.

"Damn," he muttered, refilling the needle and ignoring Remus' panting breaths. "Missed."

It took four times before Moody got the potion into the vein directly.

"You missed on purpose," Remus hissed as his eyes begun to cloud over. His voice was a dull monotone as the potion started to kick into his system fully.

Moody shrugged. "You wanted to do this the hard way."

Remus either couldn't or wouldn't answer.

"Now, let's get some things straight," Moody said, leaning forward so that his face was close to Remus'. He made sure to make sure that Remus could see that he had his wand out and that it was ready at any given moment.

"Let's start with something simple, shall we, wouldn't want you to hurt yourself or anything." Moody cleared his throat and spoke slowly and clearly. "What is your name?"

"I'm not stupid, don't talk to me like I am," Remus said in a slight monotone that still managed to have an edge of anger in it.

"Answer the goddamn question," Moody snapped, positioning his wand more threateningly tight against Remus' throat.

"Why don't you just ask Sirius." A question that was phrased as a statement.

"Because that's not enough. We need to know all of the truth from your mouth. Black only knows bits and pieces."

"That's unfortunate."

"_What's your name?_"

"Smoke," Remus answered without pause or preamble.

Moody frowned. The first question had just been to test if the truth serum was working. He'd already found out from Sirius the werewolf's name and age for testing questions. Moody filled the needle again and injected a fifth dose.

Remus shivered and Moody waited until a second had passed before he continued.

"What's your name?" His voice had adopted a slow and precise quality again.

"I already told you that I'm not stupid," Remus said, staring straight ahead and then, without missing a beat added, "Smoke."

Moody leaned back with a frown and regarded Remus with a puzzled expression.

_Smoke? What the hell? _

He glanced down at the needle. He'd already gotten two doses into the werewolf's blood system for sure. Any more than that might prove to be fatal. Moody snorted.

_I'd give him an over dose in a second if his information wasn't so damn important._

"How old are you?"

"One hundred nineteen."

Now Moody was entirely confused.

_Maybe it just doesn't _work_ on werewolves._

"Is your name Remus Lupin?"

"No."

"What is it?"

"Smoke."

Moody paused.

"Remus?"

"What." A flash of horror passed over Remus' emotionless eyes.

_Ah, so it _does _work on werewolves._

"Interesting. What is Smoke? Is it a code name? _What are you trying to hide?_"

"No. No, I have nothing to hide."

"What is it?"

"It is a word."

Moody let out his breath slowly and ran a hand through his hair. He was not a man who liked to be messed with, and Remus was wearing him thin at an astonishing rate.

"What name is Smoke? Who's name is it-_Smoke_?"

"It's his name."

"Who's this _his_? Are you using someones else's identity?"

"No, he's using mine."

He sat back, confused and puzzled.

"Who is?"

"Smoke."

"But I thought you said you _are_ Smoke."

"I am."

There was a long pause as Moody struggled to piece together the impossible puzzle that Remus was proving to be.

"Are we done we?"

"No."

"I'm bored."

"That's a pity.'

Remus sighed deeply and after a minute more of silence, started to hum to himself.

"What are you, a child?" Moody snapped, rubbing at his temples and the headache that was swiftly brewing there.

"How can I be a child when I never got the chance to _be_ a child?" Remus asked and then picked up his tune again.

"Where are they?" Remus' humming died away and he cocked his head. "Where are the other werewolves?"

"Everywhere," Remus groaned, closed his eyes and tilted his head back.

"I _meant_," Moody corrected himself quickly. "Where are the...the ones that you live with?"

"I dunno."

"Where are they staying?"

"Remus shrugged. "Dunno, lots of places."

"Where do you live?"

"Lots of places."

"_Where?_"

"Silverstone, Bristol, Honeycomb, Birmingham, Lakegrove-"

Moody groaned.

"Okay then," he began through gritted teeth. "Where are they going to attack next?"

"Got me."

Moody paused and thought on how to reword his question. "London?"

"Dunno."

"Where are they hunting next?"

"Somewhere."

"_Where somewhere_," Moody roared. Remus shrugged. "You've got to know_ something_."

"Of course I know something."

"Then tell me."

"What do you want to know."

"Everything."

"I'm not that smart."

The Auror sighed in frustration again, leaned forward so that his hands gripped the arms of Remus' chair.

"Who are the others?"

"Bastards."

"What are their _names? _Give me the goddamn _names_."

"They do not have names, only I do."

And so it went on for another two hours. By the time Moody stood and left, the door slamming behind him, he still did not have one single answer.

"That's it!" Moody roared, storming into the meeting quarters of the old, abandoned motel that served as headquarters for the Order. "He's impossible. I can't get anything out of him. Keeps on talking in riddles and codes."

From his spot over on the beaten maroon couch, Sirius smirked.

"Looks as if the master of Q and A has finally met his match.

"Shut if, Black," he snarled.

"Riddles and codes can be solved," Dumbledore's pensive voice answered form behind him. Moody snorted, shoved Sirius off the couch and sat down, uncapping his flask at the same time.

"Hey, I was sittn' there."

"That's too goddamn bad. They can be solved, yes. But that's not the problem. The problem is _time_. It takes time to crack them and time's the one thing we're short on."

"Well, then I guess we should get started right away."

Moody sighed deeply, questioning Remus again was not going to be a highly enjoyable task.

"Alright," he grunted, glancing at the time on the off the minute clock. "But I'll need some more serum. I'm out and his last dose should be waring off about now."

-


	18. Chapter 18

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

I'm sorry for any mistakes you may find. I know that they're there, so no need to point them out. The most I can do is apologize. This has not been beta read but I really wanted to get the chapter out so I'd thought I'd give it to you guys anyway.

This update is brought to you at eight o' clock (Well, when _I _started typing anyway) in the morning as a birthday present to myself. Weird, huh? Don't normally the _authors _update on the _readers_' birthdays? You know what would be a nice birthday gift, seeing how you all forgot? ) A review.

Blood Chronicles

-

"Of course, Alastor. Use as much as desired," Dumbledore said to Moody's retreating back, mind pensively fixed on young Remus and the problem he was posing to be.

"Thanks," Moody replied, grabbing the larger bottle to refill his own before the grueling question and answer session would begin anew.

"Hey, Moody, wait up!" Sirius called after him and bolted down the corridor.

"What do you want, Black?" He asked, measuring the potion with his eye level as he walked to make sure he would have enough. "I'm busy, can't it wait?"

"Not really, no."

Moody sighed. "What?"

"Look, if you'd just let me go in there-"

"No."

"I just wanna talk to him."

"Why do you want to talk to him so goddamn bad?" The Auror growled with what sounded like suspicion.

"Just because."

"Why are you still sticking up for him? After all he's done to you-"

"_He's_ done nothing wrong but be my friend. Now, if that's a crime then you'd better haul me off to Azkaban where I stand."

Moody sighed and pushed past him, Sirius stood in front of him and blocked his path.

"I don't have the time for you to go all sentimental on me."

"I'm not-" Sirius said quickly.

Moody smirked. "Yes, you are."

"I wanna talk to him," he said stubbornly.

"Maybe later."

"No, now. I need to talk to him."

Moody sighed again and glanced down the hall to the door of the room where Remus was being held. "You have ten minutes."

Sirius' face split into the barest hint of a smile and then he took off down the hall and into Remus' room.

"Remus?" He asked, closing the door behind him quietly.

"Come back to finish getting your revenge?" Remus' voice snapped.

His voice had lost its monotone quality and had returned to normal, the potion having finally worn off. Sirius' eyes fell on where Remus sat, back against the far wall with his knees drawn up to his chin and his head resting defensively on top of them.

"No, nothing like that-"

"Are you alone?"

"Wha-"

"Are you alone? Is _he_ here?" Remus asked, jerking his head toward the door.

"Who, Moody? No, Moody's not here. I'm completely alone."

Remus' answer was to turn his head down, hair falling into his face. After a second his shoulders started to shake. The grim Animagus crossed the room and sat in front of him, his tone soft when he spoke.

"He didn't hurt you, did he?"

Remus shook his head. "No, it's just..." His voice quivered and trailed off.

"Are you okay."

Remus didn't answer him.

"Rem?" He reached forward and brushed his finger tips across the other boy's convulsing shoulder. The werewolf growled in defense and shied away. Sirius tried to get him to talk one more time and when he wasn't successful, sighed, and started for the door.

"Wait," Remus' frantic, quiet voice said at last with Sirius' hand resting on the door knob. "Don't go."

He scrambled to his feet, looking awkward in the over sized jacket that hung limply from his frame.

Sirius looked over his shoulder. "What?"

"Please don't go."

"Re-"

"Sirius, I'm scared," Remus whispered.

Sirius crossed back to the other side of the room and stood in front of him.

"You don't need to be," Sirius murmured, leaning their foreheads together.

"I...I can't help it." He trailed off. "What are they going to do to me?"

Never before had Sirius heard his friend sound so terrified. Not even when confronting with Greyback. Slowly, he let out his breath.

"I don't know." This seemed to make Remus panic even more as his eyes flickered up to Sirius'. "But you need to relax. You're only going to work yourself up."

"I can't help it." Remus voice was subtly on the rise to being horrified.

"Calm down, Remus."

"Calm down? _Calm down?_ How the hell am I supposed to fucking _calm down_."

"_Sh, _shut up. Do you_ want_ him to come in here?"

Remus shook his head quickly. "No. No. Keep him out-"

"You're only making his worse on yourself."

"I wanna go home-"

"Remus, stop yelling-"

"_Don't tell me to stop yelling-"_

"_Stop."_

"I don't want to be here!"

"Rem-"

"_I don't want them to hurt me_." Remus paused to breath heavily through his mouth. His forehead quivered against Sirius'. "Don't want to hurt."

"I wont let them." Remus snorted weakly in disbelief. "I _wont_. Promise."

Remus sighed, a shiver passed though his entire body. He leaned back against the wall. His arms crossed protectively across his chest, hands gripping at his own shoulders tightly.

_He's really scared, isn't he?_

"There's no reason to be scared."

"Are you _blind_?" Remus hissed. "I'm a werewolf. A werewolf with golden eyes. A werewolf with golden eyes who tried to slaughter an entire innocent school. Or as they think," he added quickly. They'd already had that discussion and he didn't feel like having a repeat.

His head up turned slowly to look at Sirius. His golden eyes were blazing with feral fire. Sirius gulped upon realizing that it was directed at him.

"This is all your fault."

"I thought we already had this conversation-"

"If you hadn't stopped me-"

"Keep your voice _down_," Sirius hissed.

He would have darted forward and covered the other's mouth to warrant his silence if Remus would stop glaring daggers that made him feel a lot less than comfortable.

"Your fault. _This is all your fault."_ Remus' voice was a dangerous growl and Sirius started to back toward the door. Oh his third step, Sirius stopped suddenly and chided himself mentally.

_Get a grip, Black! Why are you scared of him? Hi's harmless! Stop running away. What are you, a first year?_ Sirius stood to his full height, chin held high and looked down his nose.

_You've got the advantage here. You're the one with the _wand_ and magic and God knows what else. Get a grip._

And then he stopped trying to lie to himself and bolted out the door, slamming it behind him, when Remus snarled and lunged at. Heart pounding in his ears, Sirius cursed wands and magic and God knew what else and decided that he really just a scared little first year when it came to confronting an angry werewolf.

-


	19. Chapter 19

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

I'm sorry for any mistakes you may find. I know that they're there, so no need to point them out. The most I can do is apologize. This has not been beta read but I really wanted to get the chapter out so I'd thought I'd give it to you guys anyway.

Blood Chronicles

-

Remus was left in complete and total isolation for eight days. Everyone gave him time to cool off and waited for the angst filled cries, yells, and howls to quiet before even _thinking_ about entering his room. Moody spent four days trying to find a stronger truth serum to test. He was shocked when he found out that the substance that he was already using was the purest of the pure

On the morning of the ninth day that dawned since Remus had been left on his own, Sirius knocked once on the door. He was answered with a thick spell of silence and took that as an okay to enter. The door shut quietly behind him. He had in one hand, a plastic bowl filled with Cheerios and the other gripping his wand tightly behind his back. Sirius had no idea what kind of mood Remus was prone to be in. If it was anything like the one he'd last been in when they had last talked, it was better safe than sorry.

"Hi," Sirius greeted carefully, noting that Remus was sitting in more or less the same spot as he had the last time.

He was just wondering if Remus had moved at all over the past week when his eyes caught the state of the wallpaper. The white paper with thin, nearly invisible with age gray lines was in shreds. It was torn straight through, showing the base wall beneath it.

_Well, at least I know that he _moved. Sirius thought and winced as a deep, long slash across the wall jumped out at him. Standing out visibly.

"Morning." Remus' voice was crisp, like a whip. Yet it had seemed to have lost a lot of its earlier spite and it didn't seem as if he was going to lash out at any moment. But then again, neither had he the _last_ time. "Or is it even morning? It's kinda hard to tell given my current situation," he added coldly.

Sirius brushed the comment off with a grin and walked over to where Remus sat.

"Yeah, it's morning."

The golden eyes were more tired and weary than they were angry. Sirius took it as a sign of being on much safer and even roads.

"I brought you something for breakfast," he said, setting the bowl on the faded gray carpet between them.

At the word 'breakfast' Remus visibly perked. Sirius smiled slightly in response as Remus scooped up the bowl of cereal eagerly and, forgetting the spoon that clattered to the floor, tipped it up and gulped it down.

"Bit eager, are we?"

Remus set the now empty bowl down, licked his lips free of the mild that stained them as his eyes were already looking for more.

"More?" He asked, glancing from Sirius to the empty bowl.

The Animagus shook his head sadly, heart hurting that Remus was so hungry.

_Did they seriously not feed him this whole time?_

"Nup, sorry. That's all I've got. You eat like a starving man, when's the last time you ate something?"

Remus shrugged.

"I have to get you some more then, huh?"

Remus nodded.

"Well," he started, picking up the bowl and standing up. "It's not gonna fill itself."

And then he was back out the door and Remus scrambled after him, only to have the door shut in his face. He scowled and slouched back to the ground. To once again wait for Sirius and, more importantly, his food to return.

_What I wouldn't give right now for a word find right about now,_ Remus thought after fifteen minutes had passed and still showed no sign of Sirius' return.

He had just given it up as a lost hope when the fast fall of footsteps beyond the door and the turn of the knob brought his hope spiraling back into stunning reality.

"Finally-" he muttered and broke off when the person coming through the door was not Sirius.

"Where's that goddamn broom? Dad said it was in the first room on the-" the boy with the messy hair trailed off when he didn't see a broom, but Remus. "Um..." He started dumbly, door wide open and standing in the doorway. "Sorry?"

"Who the-"

"-I'll just be going now." He turned sharply, intending to take the two steps that would get him out of the room and back on track to finding a broom.

He never go to take them.

Remus perked and tacked James to the floor. James yelled and kicked blindly behind him, hand searching for his wand.

"Get offa me!" He yelled, voice muffled by the carpet as his face was smashed into it. Remus didn't say a word as greedy hands patted down James' slim body. "I said get-"

James didn't have to finish his demand, for the other boy pushed himself off of him and returned to sit with his back firmly against the wall.

Eager fingers were taring at the wrapping of a Honeyduke's chocolate bar. Bland and confused, James stood, brushed himself off, and looked over at Remus. His wand by his side, but not slack. He watched as Remus ate more than half of the candy bar in one bite.

"Hey, that's mine!" James exclaimed, gesturing wildly to the chocolate bar that the werewolf was devouring.

Even if it was his, and even if he would mourn the loss of its rich taste, James made not one more to take it back. Remus' eyes never left James face as he finished off the chocolate and licked his fingers clean. They were bored as he looked at James and shrugged. A happy sigh followed as the final bit melted on his tongue. His golden eyes held a silent, hungry question and James started for the door again.

This time it wasn't being tackled to the floor that put an end to the young Order member's escape, but the opening of the door.

"Alright, I've got your-" Sirius cut off when a yelp as he collided head first with the teenager that was trying to exit the room at he same time that he was trying to enter it.

They both cursed and rubbed at the foreheads. Remus paid no attention and snatched up the yellow, cardboard cereal box.

"Bloody hell," Sirius spat and blinked his eyes several times to get them back into focus and to stop his world form spinning in an array of colors. "Prongs?"

James grinned sheepishly and righted his glasses. "Fancy running into you here."

"What are you doing in here?"

"I was looking for a broom to-"

"And the word _magic_ never came to mind, why?" Sirius drawled and his friend went bright crimson in the face.

"Well...um...You know how I like to do it myself and all-"

The canine Animagus overrode him with a snort. "Sure, and that's why you were complaining about it just the other day when-"

"Do you guys have any more?"

The two sable haired boys turned in unison to see Remus shaking the Cheerio box upside down and frowning when nothing came out. Sirius was the first to recover as James' grip tightened on his wand.

"James, relax. He's harmless-"

"Harmless, am I? Has two months with me taught you nothing?" Remus snorted.

"You-" he said, rounding fully on Remus. "Shut. Up." Sirius turned back to James, still half turned toward Remus encase he got any idea to try something stupid.

"He's just hungry and a bit upset-" Sirius forgot that while even talking in a whisper, Remus' sensitive hearing would be able to pick up on every single word.

"_I'm not upset_."

They both ignored him and Remus sighed, slouched back against the wall and tore the cardboard slowly to pieces.

"It's fine, really."

"Fine? _Fine?_ How can it be _fine_?" James hissed, not caring if his voice was low or not. "This asshole kept you hostage for two months. _Two months, Pads._" Hazel eyes glared at Remus over Sirius' shoulder.

"He just as mush held me hostage as I did him."

Remus snarled and gained his footing.

"No- Wait...Guys! _Shut up._" Sirius yelled and got in between the two of them, between James' out stretched wand and Remus' bared teeth. "James, put it away."

"Sirius-"

"_Away_."

Remus adopted a smug look. "Not so hot now, are you when you don't have your little stick to protect you."

"And you, sit down."

"Don't tell me what to do-"

"He'll tell you to do whatever he damn well pleases!" James snapped. "You're on our turf now, _wolf_."

Remus pretended to flinch. "Oh, ouch. That hurt, _Bambi. _Or must I remind you who's on top of the food chain?"

"How'd you-"

"Could smell it. That damn deer had the same sent-"

"I'm a stag, not a deer-"

"What's the different? They're both dinner-"

"Okay, _enough!_" Sirius yelled and stepped more fully between them. "_Guys_."

They silenced, but continued to glare daggers at one another.

"I'll bring you more to eat in a bit," he said in a voice that really did make Remus flinch. It sounded as if it'd be more at home with Padfoot, if dogs could talk.

"C'mon, James."

James spared him with one last loath filled glance. One which Remus returned with just as much, if not more, rancor. James opened the door and disappeared out into the hallway. Sirius also shared a last parting glance although one that was much softer. It was something between disgust and disappointment. And then he was gone, too.

Remus shifted uneasily and pulled the over sized jacket around his shoulders. He pulled the good up again and allowed himself to get lost within the dark blue, whiskey smelling folds.

The words played over and over on the tip of his tongue, what he wanted to say but hadn't.

Couldn't.

So he settled for keeping them in his mind. Telling them over and over to a Sirius that was already gone.

Many hours into the night, he stated to feel drowsy and soon fell into an uneasy, light slumber with the words _I'm sorry_ playing over and over on the forefront of his mind.

_I'm sorry._

_I'm sorry._

_I'm so sorry I disappointed you, Sirius._

-


	20. Chapter 20

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

I'm sorry for any mistakes you may find. I know that they're there, so no need to point them out. The most I can do is apologize. This has not been beta read but I really wanted to get the chapter out so I'd thought I'd give it to you guys anyway.

Blood Chronicles

-

The next time he awoke, Remus had no way of knowing what time of day it was, nor how long he'd slept. He at with his back against the wall directly across from the door. His eyes were bland and stared unblinkingly at the heavily marked door.

It was raining somewhere beyond the own personal prison of his mind. Remus could hear as the raindrops landed thick and heavy. He listened as the heavens cried in angst and remembered a time when he was younger and how he used to believe that someone was dumping a wheelbarrow full of rice on the roof.

Time slipped away like sand in an hour glass. Remus had no way of knowing how long he sat and listened to the thunder and the falling rice disguised as rain.

For a long time, the rain was his only company. Remus quite preferred it that way. That and, of course, his ever tangled thoughts. Then, at last, came a new noise. A noise so faint that he could have sworn he'd imagined it. But then, when it came again, he knew he wasn't hearing things.

There was someone outside the door. _Someones_ outside the door. Remus rolled his eyes and tried to tune their low voices out. The last thing that he wanted was to be surrounded by people he did not like and did not like him very much in return. He rolled his eyes back in his head and sighed.

A minute passed and the voices still converted quietly on the other side of the firmly warded white door. If Remus had wanted to, he could have concentrated and found out exactly what they were talking about. But he didn't because he had a fair guess.

Him.

"Either you can shut the hell up and come in here, or you can shut the hell up and find somewhere else to bitch," Remus said loudly, dryly.

Smugly, he noted how the voices did not speak again. There was a fumbling with what sounded like keys and chains and sharp Latin incantations. The door swung inward just enough to admit a slender blond haired boy who looked about Remus' own age.

In the end it was the sent and the way his senses flared that gave the blond away for what he really was.

_Wolf,_ Remus thought, his breath catching in his throat as he held it fast.

Remus' lips raised like hackles when he was acknowledged with a quiet 'hello' instead of a nip beneath the chin.

_Tame wolf._

Remus growled. He'd never met a tame werewolf before. And now that he was face to face with one he was glad that he'd chosen the right path.

The other wolf's exposed skin was a map of scars, a story of monthly pain and self inflicted torture and misery. His clothes were off the second hand rack and looked like they could use a bit of patching up. Remus thought back to his own belongings. The ones that he had taken from store shelves. Decent. Nice. Some of them brand name. And what was best of all was that he hadn't to pay a cent for any of it. As a pickpocket, it was not only money that he relieved his customers of.

His tongue had barley formed around a single curse word when all words and thoughts of insults died in his throat. Behind the blond, a shaggy black dog slipped into the room and sat at the boy's heels.

The once mirth filled eyes that were now trained on Remus had become cold and hard. A silent threat, a challenge.

The other werewolf followed Remus' gaze and grinned sheepishly when he saw what had caught his attention.

"Sorry about him. But he really did insist," his quiet voice fell on deaf ears.

Eyes still on Padfoot, Remus took a step forward. Padfoot's ears went flat against his head and he growled low in the back of his throat. Remus froze and the blond rested a hand on the top of his companion's head to calm him.

For a full two minutes, neither said a word. Both were lost in the complicated world of wondering _what _to say.

"If you're just going to stand there then you can just leave," Remus snapped at last. "I've no time for mind games."

"Then you'll have time for me, seeing as I'm not interested in playing any games," the other responded calmly with an educated voice that hardened Remus' eyes and attitude even further.

"My name is Tyler, and this is-"

"_Padfoot_," Remus spat and glared accusingly at the dog. He couldn't believe that Sirius wasn't on his side, that eh was on the opposite end of the playing field. "No need to introduce us, we're well off."

"I should have known you'd know him-"

"Smoke, the name's Smoke."

There was a short pause, in which Tyler slowly raised an eyebrow.

"In that case, you can call me Moony."

"Moony?" Remus repeated, more to himself than to anyone else.

"Yes."

"Moony?" He said again and his gaze returned to Padfoot. Remus snorted. "And you said _I_ didn't have a creative name."

"I didn't get to pick it," Tyler said with a tad of defensiveness and a hint of a blush creeping up his cheeks.

Remus' eyes narrowed at that. "Let me guess, your _master_ gave it to you? Fucking tame wolf," Remus growled and Padfoot growled back in warning.

"That's not how it goes. I belong to no one."

"You throw yourself willingly to their feet and let them put the chains of obedience, shame, and slavery on you without a _fight_," he snarled, disgust welling thickly in his voice. "You _let_ them tame and beat you into submission like a dog. You deny the wolf-"

"I will never accept that beast," Tyler said in a low voice, meeting Remus' golden eyes with his own brown ones steadily.

"Funny, aint it, how you don't deny the rest of it," Remus smirked. "And it's just fucking _hilarious _how you insist that you aren't a beast and try to live like _normal_ people, yet you call yourself a beast-"

"We're not one, he's not a part of him," Tyler said in a rush, more to assure himself.

Padfoot nudged his hand with his nose in a comforting and calming matter. At the simple show of affection, Remus' temper rose, boiling and finally spilling over the edge.

"You can keep saying that and pretending all you like, but it doesn't change anything."

"I'm not pretending, it's true-"

"Why do you fight him? There's so much more if you'd just-"

"No, giving up is not an option. You don't seem to understand that-"

"It's not giving up. It's _being yourself_. Tell me how that's a crime."

"It is a crime if that's not who you are. And I am not a raving, blood thirsty monster...That's anything but me-"

"Again you try to hide behind a mask of lies and wishes," Remus growled, his fingernails bitting into the palms of his hands.

"I'm not-"

"You _are_. You're not a human, so stop acting like it. You're a _wolf_-" He broke off in a high pitched yelp as Padfoot lunged forward and sunk his teeth deeply into the back of the tawny's calf.

He growled once in a final warning, tugged hard, and let go.

"Sirius, don't..." Tyler said shakily. "I said you could come in with me and I can just as easily tell you to leave."

The dog snorted and trotted back to Tyler's side, although this time he did not sit down.

Remus swore and rolled up his pant leg to wipe the rapidly pooling blood away, his eyes never left Padfoot.

"Sorry, he doesn't really mean it. He's just a bit protective."

"Protective, yeah that's just a _bit _of an understatement," Remus hissed through clenched teeth and tore off a strip of his jeans to wrap tightly around the bloody wound. "You'd better have had your rabies shot, that's all I'm gonna say."

For a second, he thought he might be rewarded with a tail wag. But only for a split second. None the less, he was disappointed when Padfoot's eyes didn't even gleam playfully.

_I spent a whole fucking night apologizing to you, you fucking bastard._ He thought as his skilled fingers applied the pressure to stop the bleeding. Another cloak of silence fell.

"It's not so bad," Tyler said quietly, breaking the still quietness. "It's nothing like what you think...With the whole chains and master thing...You live just like anyone else. Get schooling-"

And as the careful words weaved themselves through Remus' mind, he felt the pieces of the puzzle sliding perfectly and sickly together. The answer was enough to make him laugh. Tyler trailed off, brow furrowed and Padfoot's muscles tensed.

"What's so funny?"

Remus composed himself again and looked the other werewolf straight in the eye.

"You."

"Wha-"

"If _that's _what you want, then you can just turn around and leave right now." He nodded to the door. "It's a lost cause."

"But...I'm telling you, it's worth it-"

"Nothings worth giving up my freedom. A second of freedom is worth more than a lifetime of slavery." Golden eyes flashed dangerously.

"It's not like you're enslaved.

"You're right. It's worse. At least I'm not a prisoner in my own body."

Tyler fell silent and his gaze drifted down to the gray carpeted floor.

"I don't know where you get off, and I really don't care," Remus said, his voice emotionless. "But I'm not gonna roll over on my back and bare my throat like any good little puppy."

"I-"

Remus growled and Tyler fell silent.

"Fine," the blond answered stiffly. "Live like an animal. And thanks for giving the rest of us a bad name."

"No. That's where you're wrong," Remus snarled. "Thanks for giving the rest of _us_ a bad name. Traitor."

"Say all you like, wolf, but I'm not hearing a word."

Remus' mouth curled into a smirk. "Right back at cha, _wolf_."

Tyler paused, turned halfway toward the door, but the other's words made him stop short and freeze. He turned slowly, eyes hard and stared the golden eyed down.

"And that's where _you're _wrong," his voice was quiet, but radiated cold fury. "I'm not like you. I'm not a wolf. I'm a _man_."

"Ta, brother," Remus called mockingly as the other left out the door swiftly without another word and without looking back.

Padfoot moved to exit as well, but before he did, he glanced one more time over his shoulder.

Silver and gold met and Remus felt his anger melt away at the loath reflected in the seemingly endless pits. Padfoot huffed and nudged the door a little wider with his nose.

_If you don't do something now, you might never be able to call him your friend again._

"Sirius."

For the first time since Tyler's arrival, Remus dropped all of his defensive and harsh tones and forced his voice low and quiet. Padfoot paused, hindquarters just visible to Remus. And then he slipped fully out the door.

Remus started as if to throw himself against the door in a fit of anger. To bang his fists on the door and scream himself bloody hoarse until the teen that he'd grown so close to came back. He got as far as banging on the door before it clicked open and Sirius slipped back in, his human body restored.

"Siri-" Remus was silenced by two fingers pressed almost painfully against his lips. And even though it didn't hurt, he flinched.

Sirius held them there a minute longer before he finally ripped them away. With great difficultly, Remus forced his head down and his eyes to the floor, adopting a submissive position. The corner of the sable haired teen's mouth twitched up when he realized that it was only for him that Remus would swallow his pride and wave the white flag.

"Are you mad at me?" It was his voice, small and questioning that made Sirius take two steps forward.

"No, I'm not mad at you."

Remus' head upturned slowly and his eyes seemed a little more alive now that he was sure that Sirius was not mad at him. His eyes silently asked what his mouth could not. Sirius shifted and used equally silent body language to get his answer back to Remus.

Remus took one hesitant step forward and then pressed himself flat against Sirius, head tucked under his chin and hands balled into fists in the fabric of his shirt. Remus allowed himself to stand still and simply breath in the sent that was autumn leaves, cool breezes, wet dog, and just all _Sirius_.

His mind repeated the word 'pack' over and over and he allowed his body to melt into the other boy's, enjoying the feeling of comfort and safety he felt. It was the first time since he'd been captured that he felt safe and warm and _content_.

"I'm sorry," he mouthed the words against Sirius' throat, lips brushing against soft skin.

He hoped that Sirius would understand what that one quiet apology meant.

Remus felt pretty assured that he did when he felt long fingers combing through the hair at the nape of his neck. His body arched and he bent his head lower so that Sirius' fingers would be able to dance through his hair and across his neck all they wanted.

The skillful digits massaged small circles into the back of his neck, sending electric fire zigzagging down his spine. They slipped up further to comb through his hair again, brushing it back form his sweaty forehead. Bitten fingernails grazed gently at his skin.

_Hm. That feels so good._

He didn't even notice as his body started to arch into Sirius' touch and that he'd started whimpering and moaning softly. His head upturned and he nudged the silver eyed underneath the chin with his nose. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the corner of Sirius' mouth curl upwards and the hand on top of his head fisted in his dirty blond hair.

Sirius was mumbling some nonsense, something Remus couldn't make out. Remus sighed and concentrated hard on the hand trailing through his hair and the way Sirius' Adams apple jerked up and down. The way his chest rumbled as he spoke too low for Remus to make out what he was saying. Personally, he didn't care much either.

Remus mouthed three new words against Sirius' throat, words he'd yet to say.

"I love you."

At the same time, Sirius started to talk louder.

"Moony," he moaned.

Remus' eyes snapped open. He'd become unaware that they'd even closed, and he pulled away, mouth still formed around the word 'you'. Sirius fixed him with a puzzled gaze and spread one of his arms wide, an invite. The werewolf was still too shocked to shake his head, let alone speak.

"Remus, what-"

"That's why you like me, isn't it?" Remus' voice was quiet, his mind still trying to grasp onto the fact that Sirius had called him Moony.

"What _are_ you-"

"You called me _Moony_," he spat the nickname as if it were filth. "That's the only reason you like me, isn't it?"

It sounded like a question, but was really a statement. "Because we're both werewolves. And I remind you of him."

Sirius gaped at him for a second. "Where'd you even _get_ that from? What has James been telling you-"

"I got it from _you_," Remus yelled and took a step backwards.

Sirius took one forward.

"Stay away form me," Remus snarled. "I thought that you liked me for...Me."

"I do, it was...It was just an accident."

"Accident my ass. I bet you've been calling me that the whole entire time in you're head. Well, thanks for leading me on."

"I haven't been leading you on," Sirius snapped, grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him closer so that their faces were a mere inch apart. "It slipped."

"I'll say," Remus snored and wiped something that might have been a tear gliding down his cheek away. "We're nothing alike, him and me. _Nothing_."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Tell me about it."

An uncomfortable silence fell.

"Got any more Cheerios?" Remus asked, pushing the whole thing away in fear that Sirius would realize just how close he was to tears.

"You really like those things, don't you?" The Animagus chuckled uneasily. "Yeah, I'll get you some."

The tension remained as Sirius crossed to the door.

And then he was gone. And slowly, turtle racing speed slowly, the tension faded form the room and from the tow boys so that, two hours later, when Sirius came back with two bowls and a full box of Cheerios, there was none left.

-


	21. Chapter 21

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

I'm sorry for any mistakes you may find. I know that they're there, so no need to point them out. The most I can do is apologize. This has not been beta read but I really wanted to get the chapter out so I'd thought I'd give it to you guys anyway.

Blood Chronicles

-

"So let me get this straight..." Suspicion filled golden eyes observed the bronze bracelet that was being offered to him. "All I have to do is put this on..."

"And you can leave, yeah."

"Leave to-"

"Leave the _room,_" Sirius corrected quickly. "But you still have to stay here."

Remus sighed are rubbed the back of his neck. "Why can't I just go? He's already done trying to get anything out of me. What use am I sitting here?"

"Because you're a," Sirius cleared his throat and made his voice a gruff impression of Moody's. "'Dangerous, blood thirsty mutt that tried to kill a whole school of innocent children and cannot be trusted.' Does that answer your question?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "Innocent? Children I can understand...But innocent, please. Innocent my ass."

"I've always been innocent," Sirius said with a glare and mock offense. "Until I met James. He ruined me."

Remus snorted. "I don't think you've ever been innocent."

"If you doubt my innocence one more time I'll leave you in here."

"Big loss that would be," he muttered, but his eyes betrayed him and begged to get out of the tiny room he'd been confined to for so long.

"Alright," Sirius held the bracelet out and it snaked itself around Remus' wrist and closed with a crisp snap.

The werewolf jumped slightly and Sirius pulled out his wand and tapped it to the smooth surface once. For a second, it glowed bright blue and tightened its hold, then it changed to a dull gray and finally to its original copper color.

"I'm gonna tell you right now," he muttered and jerked his hand toward the ceiling. Remus followed his gaze until his eyes landed on a small black box nestled into the corner nearest to the door.

"This place is _loaded_," Sirius emphasized with wild hand gestures. "One wrong move and there'll be twenty people on you before you even have time to breathe. And they wont be nice about it. So let's do be good, okay?"

Remus rolled his eyes and offered no other response.

"I'll take that for a yes, then."

The door swung open and Remus bolted. He got a step past it before Sirius grabbed him firmly by the waist and hauled him back.

"Let me-"

"Relax, okay?"

Eyes darting around the corridor to take in the new surroundings, Remus followed Sirius down the short hallway and turned left.

"Where're we going?" He played with the cold metal encircling his wrist with bored fingers.

"Down to the hall.:

"Where's that?"

"Right here." Another door opened and Remus was now looking at what seemed to be used as some kind of meeting hall.

It was large and bare except for the two long tables that ran side by side, creating an isle way between them. They were completely empty except for two people who sat hunched over their card hand in the center of one of the tables. Remus looked up at Sirius wearily, hoping they weren't here to talk to the people seated at the table.

He swore silently as he was met with a grin and then dragged over to their spot at the table.

As they grew nearer, the two black and equally messy haired men arched their necks to inspect the new comers. Remus had to hold back a growl when he saw that one of them was James. Quickly, his gaze jumped to the other man, who he guessed to be James' father. They looked nearly identical except James didn't have the telling age lines tight around his mouth and eyes.

Even thinking the word 'father' left a bitter taste in his mouth as if it were a filthy swear word.

James folded his hand of cards and set them down on the table

"You fold, I win," the other man said, throwing his cards down and grinning.

"No you don't. Shut up, Dad. I'm just...putting it on pause," James chuckled.

Remus looked over to James' dad, waiting for the yelling and punishment to come. He was shocked when the older man laughed along with his son.

If he'd...Well, first of all, he wouldn't be caught dead playing cards with Greyback.

"Is that even legal?"

"Dunno, but I am anyway-"

Sirius cleared his throat to break up their private conversation. James shot him a sheepish grin.

"We'll finish this later, old man."

"Old man? Who're you calling 'old man', shrimp?"

"You-"

Both Sirius and Remus exchanged a long look.

"Hi Harold, 'lo Jim," the grim Animagus said loudly, making sure they both could hear him over their own bickering.

"Hi, Pads," James' hazel eyes narrowed on Remus, but he didn't offer any kind of greeting.

Remus shook his head. "That's not nice, didn't your parents teach you any manners on how to greet a person?"

"They did," James snapped. "But the key word there being _person."_

A wolfish grin spread across Remus' face.

"So, you're the Remus Lupin I keep hearing a lot about."

Harold was answered with an icy glare. Sirius knocked Remus in the ribs with a not so subtle elbow.

"Cut it out."

"I don't like being called by a name that isn't mine," he muttered and massaged the pint where Sirius' elbow had collided with his rib cage.

"And here I got the impression that you _liked _going by Smoke," Sirius sighed mockingly.

"Hearing a lot about me from where?"

Harold shrugged. "You're the current obsession in the Order, the big project-"

"I'm not a science experiment, ya know."

"For once, could you do us the honor and keep your comments to yourself?" James spat.

"I was under the impression that freedom of speech was a basic human right."

"_Human _right-"

Remus sighed in irritation. "That's getting really old, think you can come up with something a bit better?"

"Alright," Sirius interrupted as James opened his mouth to retort and ended things before they could get really ugly.

"James, stop," Harold said gently.

What really made Remus keep his mouth shut wasn't Sirius, but Harold. He was surprised that there was no warning undertone, no growl, and no blow.

"He started it." The older Potter gave a small smile.

"How old are we, now?"

"Eighteen," James muttered and crossed his arms.

"I think you're a bit too old to still be pointing fingers-"

"But you and Frank still do."

Remus watched in the highest degree of awe as they shared casual and friendly banter. He'd always assumed that all child and parent relationships were like what he and Greyback shared.

"Okay, so maybe bringing you down here was a bad idea," Sirius said quietly. "When they get going, you can never get 'em to stop."

They slipped out of the hall and both James and Harold were so engrossed that they didn't even realize they'd left until several minutes later.

The two teenage boys roamed around for a few more hours or so until at lat they came to a familiar looking hallway. Remus stopped at the head of the corridor and refused to take one more step.

"Rem," Sirius sighed, seized him by the sleeve and pulled him forward.

Remus' heels dug into the floor until they created runs in the carpet and he couldn't be moved forcefully anymore.

"I'm not going back in there," he growled, eyes narrowing on the door down the corridor where he'd been held captive.

"Don't have much of a choice," Sirius grunted, snaked an arm around the other boy's waist and forcefully dragged him the rest of the length of the hallway.

"_No._ I'm not going back."

He thrashed out of Sirius' grasp and turned to face him with determined eyes. Sirius sighed. He knew this was going to be the hard part all along.

"Why can't I come with you?"

Sirius' head snapped forward so that they were looking one another directly in the eye.

"Me? You wanna come with me?"

Remus' silence was a better answer than any verbal response could ever have been.

"You can't.:

The werewolf didn't protest, didn't argue or whine. His eyes shied away sharply from Sirius'.

"I wish you could, but you can't."

There was a long pause.

"I understand how it is. You don't want me."

"Don't even try to pull that card. You know I do."

Remus' eyes sought out his again.

"As a friend, you know," Sirius said quickly.

"Why can't I?"

"School, I've still got a week left to go."

"That's the only reason?"

"The one and only."

"What about after school?"

Sirius bit his lip. "I dunno."

"I'm never gonna get out of here, am I." It wasn't a question, but a statement.

Sirius didn't answer. Remus stormed past him and headed back up the corridor.

"Where're you going?" Sirius asked and trotted behind him.

"Bathroom."

"You're going the wrong-"

"Am not," Remus snarled and turned sharply to the right. He'd been to the bathroom on the corner countless times and its placement was sharp in his memory. He slammed the first door on the right shut behind him and locked it.

"Rem, c'mon," Sirius sighed tiredly and jerked on the knob. "Don't be such a girl."

"Out in a second," he growled. "I've gotta go."

"Three minutes."

"Fine."

The bathroom was small, almost too small to be comfortable. But Remus didn't care, he was busy staring at his reflection in the dirty mirror. He watched as his reflection's eyes scanned him. His fingers snaked down to the faucets and twisted them both on as far as they'd go/ The water hissed into life and whirl pooled around the sink before spiraling down the drain.

It was loud.

It was distracting.

It was _perfect._

Remus took the mirror off the wall and cracked it into several little pieces. His fingers brushed over the cool, jagged pieces and picked up one of the larger ones. Deep in thought, he rotated it slowly a few times between his fingers. A slow smile etched across his face and he tucked it up one of the coat's long sleeves.

He turned the faucets again so that the water slowed to a trickle and then completely died. The remaining glass pieces he shoved noiselessly into the cabinet underneath the sink. He unlocked the door and stepped out as if nothing had happened.

Remus sighed, arms crossed and glanced wearily down the hallway.

"Okay," he muttered, allowing Sirius to lead him back to the room he'd called a home for the past two weeks or so. "Lock me up and throw away the key."

"Drama queen," the Animagus snorted and turned so that they were at the had of the corridor where Remus' quarters were.

"Bloody hell, not again," the werewolf growled and came to another halt when they started down the hallway to his personal prison.

Sirius groaned in frustration when he saw that Dumbledore and some man he'd never seen before where arguing mildly outside of Remus' door.

"You're very popular," Sirius grumbled and hauled Remus down the hall, even despite his voiced protests.

"I'm not some zoo exhibit."

Sirius ignored him and gave an overly cheerful wave when his headmaster and the stranger turned to look at their approach.

"'Lo sir and..." he paused slightly before regaining his ground like he'd meant to have a lull in the conversation the whole time. "Other sir."

Dumbledore nodded to his student and fellow Order member.

"Sirius, I hope everything is well?"

"Oh, yeah," he laughed uneasily as he steered Remus by the shoulders. "Yeah, every thing's right as rain, things are."

"Hello, Remus," the white haired man tried softly.

Remus spat at his feet and bared his teeth. The man with Dumbledore went pale and his mouth hung slightly open, eyes fixed on Remus.

"What're you looking at?" He snarled over his shoulder as he was conducted into the white walled room.

Sirius grinned sheepishly at he two older mean as he shut the door in an attempt to muffle Remus' yelling and cursing behind the both of them.

-


	22. Chapter 22

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

I'm sorry for any mistakes you may find. I know that they're there, so no need to point them out. The most I can do is apologize. This has not been beta read but I really wanted to get the chapter out so I'd thought I'd give it to you guys anyway.

This is for all you anonymous reviews out there. I do love you. I really do. I just don't want to write replies to you in my fic. I'm sorry, and I know that's what most people do, but if you hadn't noticed after twenty-one chapters, I'm not one of them. So if you think I hate you, I don't. I want to reply to _all_ of you. So, if the reply is what you're looking for, just log it, yeah? Thanks, and I hope that didn't sound as mean as I think it did. No hard feelings! Just thought I should say something!

Blood Chronicles

-

"John..." Dumbledore said quietly and rested a gentle hand on his companion's shoulder.

"So what they say is true, then," he whispered, talking to himself.

The older wizard nodded gravely. "I'm afraid so."

Sirius stealthily let himself back out of Remus' quarters after the werewolf had settled down slightly and slipped behind the two men. His eyes narrowed on the new comer and they flew back and forth as if trying to watch the flow of conversation. He dare not interrupt, and instead opted to listen as the rhythm of language unfolded on its own.

"You should have contacted me as soon as he arrived."

"That was the plan originally, yes. But some problems arose, you see," Dumbledore apologetically with a small smile. "I didn't think it best for you to see him in his current condition-"

"I don't give a damn about what you thought. He's my child. I don't care about his _condition_. I just want to see him."

There was a long pause in which John looked from Dumbledore to the door.

"I'm afraid to say that Remus has completely turned. There'll be no getting him back now," the headmaster chose his words carefully. "I didn't want to tell you until we knew everything, but I guess that's a bit out of the question now."

"Have you tried?" John asked wearily with the ever constant undertone of hope.

"Of course we've tried. We've been trying. He doesn't want to conform on any level. He's gone, John, entirely engulfed by his counter nature."

"Yes, but how _can you know for sure_?"

"John...He's not the little boy you knew. He's changed now, and who can blame him? He's had to adapt to a whole new life style. He's created defensives that can never be torn down. That boy in there is not the son you knew, John. He belongs to the wolf now."

"_He's still my son_."

Dumbledore sighed wearily and ran a hand through his snow white hair.

"Maybe it would be for the best if you didn't see him," he started slowly.

"I _want_ to see him."

"It would hardly do any good. There is a very slim change that he'll even remember who you are."

John paled slightly. "I've at least got to try. Trying can't hurt anything."

Dumbledore shook his head sadly. "Trying, in Remus' case, can hurt a lot of things, John. I'm not willing to let you be one of them.

He started for the door and just as his hand turned the knob, the old headmaster rested a hand over his.

"John," Dumbledore said quietly, aware of Sirius' ever present presence and trying to block him out. "He's not the same." John opened his mouth, but Dumbledore silenced him by pressing on. "Don't hold it against him for anything he says. He's been known to be violent and have a quick temper."

John shook his head, eyes locked on the door that was not more than a few mere inches from his face.

"No...No, not Remus. He was always such a well behaved child. Always good and so quiet..." The words trembled on his lips as his voice trailed off.

"And this is what I've been trying to explain to you. He is how you remember him in the slightest. Maybe it would be best for you to keep him only in your mind. Maybe it would be for the best if..."

"Best if what?" John prompted, eyes shifting from the door to the blue eyes behind the half moon spectacles.

"Best if you let him go, John."

"Let him..." John froze, muscles tensed. "I can't believe you'd even suggest something like that. He's not a dog. You can't just-" His voice broke and John cleared his throat thickly. "Put him down."

Dumbledore sighed and stepped back.

"I will not do anything without your consent. If you'd like, you may see him. Just do remember what I've said."

John nodded numbly and took a minute to brace himself before twisting the door knob and stepping inside the room that would bring him face to face with a son that he hadn't seen in over eleven years.

-


	23. Chapter 23

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

I'm sorry for any mistakes you may find. I know that they're there, so no need to point them out. The most I can do is apologize. This has not been beta read but I really wanted to get the chapter out so I'd thought I'd give it to you guys anyway.

This is for all you anonymous reviews out there. I do love you. I really do. I just don't want to write replies to you in my fic. I'm sorry, and I know that's what most people do, but if you hadn't noticed after twenty-two chapters, I'm not one of them. So if you think I hate you, I don't. I want to reply to _all_ of you. So, if the reply is what you're looking for, just log it, yeah? Thanks, and I hope that didn't sound as mean as I think it did. No hard feelings! Just thought I should say something!

Blood Chronicles

-

It was foolish, but John Lupin secretly hoped that on the other side of the door would sit six-year-old Remus Lupin. The same child he used to read bed time stories to and tuck in every night. The same Remus who used to beg him to check under the bed and in the closet for boggarts. The same child that blew out the candles on the sloppily decorated chocolate cake a week before he disappeared from the world, and from John, forever.

A lump formed in his throat as his eyes fixed on not a small, six-year-old boy, but on a nearly fully grown man. He was pacing the room in tight circles, fingers clenching and driving his nails into the flesh of his palms over and over again. The sight made Albus Dumbledore's words come to the forefront of his mind.

_...he's not the boy you knew. He's changed..._

In his head, John had been telling himself that his old headmaster until his fifth year was wrong. That Remus, the Remus he knew, hadn't changed. That he would still be exactly the same as before...Before his life had turned inside out and upside down.

Now seeing the golden eyed stranger with the scars around his throat and bared teeth glaring at him with the utmost degree of loath, he knew that Dumbledore had been right.

Remus had changed...And he wasn't coming back.

"You again? What the fuck are you lookin' at, anyway Got something on my face?" Remus asked, exposing his sharp canines in a mock smile.

"No."

It wasn't an answer to his son's question, but a disbelief to his innermost trails spoken aloud.

"No. No, it can't be. It just can't."

"What's the matter, gone senile?"

John couldn't answer to Remus' sneer. Couldn't say a word. His throat was too constricted by some invisible, unbidden force. For a full minute, neither of them moved. A thick stillness suffocated the atmosphere. Remus' eyes flashed, reflecting the artificial light in their depths.

Remus' _gold_ eyes flashed.

Mind struggling to decipher a million different thoughts and memories at once, John rushed forward and cupped his hands around Remus' face.

"Look at me, Remus. Look at me," he pleaded frantically, commanding and wrenched Remus' head up so that their eyes met.

"Let go of-"

"Stop and _look_."

Reluctantly, Remus' eyes locked with John's green ones. The older wizard stood, hands and breathing alike shaky, waiting for realization to dawn on his lost son's face. He wanted for Remus' eyes to glaze and then mist. Waited for him to fling his arms around his neck and mummer a thousand different nonsense words into his comforting shoulder.

John waited for Remus to break down once he realized that the man in front of him was his own father. He waited for the horrifying gold to fade from his eyes and to be replaced with shining spring grass green again.

Remus' eyes glazed over.

And John felt a surge of hope flicker inside of him.

Remus' eyes hardened and the most primitive of growls tore low and threateningly from the back of his throat.

And John felt his flicker of hope die instantly as if it were a new born flame drowned by a flood.

"Remus, son, _look_ at me. I'm-"

"I know who you fucking are," Remus snarled and shoved him away. "What I want to know is _why_ are here?"

John paused. He'd have thought that pretty obvious.

"I came to see you-" he was cut off with a disbelieving snort.

"Well, here I am, _Father_," he spat the name and spread his arms wide with a gleam in his eyes. "No matter, you've saved me the trouble of tracking you down."

"Rem-"

"Now we can finish what we started."

The other man's mouth closed and a deep frown creased his brow.

"What are you talking about?"

"This." Quick as lightening, Remus darted forward and pinned his father to the wall harshly, leaving his arms drawn tight above his head.

"Did you ever wonder..." The werewolf whispered, mouth beside John's ear. "If the wolf that tried to kill you in January was anything more than an accident?"

John didn't say a word. He just concentrated on breathing and trying to remember _how_ to breath.

"That wasn't just any wolf...And it wasn't just by chance."

"What? What are you...Talking about?" He managed to choke out between ragged breaths, every syllable hurting as Remus' sharp nails dug into his throat.

"It wasn't an accident. It was _planned_. That wasn't just _any_ wolf. That was_ me_."

"You. No. No, you don't know what you're talking about."

His son laughed bitterly. "Course I do. I was _there_. It was _me_. _I_ wanted to fucking kill you. Rip you limb from limb and gnaw the eyeballs right out of your skull," he trailed off and pulled back a bit so that the other man could see his face more clearly.

"So tell me, _Dad_. Did I turn out quite like you'd have wanted me to?" He mocked gently. "But then again...What do you really care? You don't give a damn about me-"

"I do," John answered automatically, eyes trained firmly on Remus face.

_God, he has Ana's nose_.

"You would've killed me the second you'd have found me-"

"Remus-" John protested weakly, feeling more and more physically drained after each word that left the other's throat.

"-Never did like me-"

"-Son-"

"-Never even cared enough to actually come looking for me-"

"_Remus_."

He stopped and fixed his father with a glare that told that he was reluctantly listening.

"Is that what you've been thinking all these years?"

"That's what I've been _knowing _all these years. Kinda hard to believe anything else," Remus growled.

"Listen to me. Remus, _listen to me_. I don't know what you've been thinking all this time...But I love you-"

Remus' eyes flashed dangerously.

"Tell me, Dad," Remus said lowly, mouth next to John's ear once more.

He slowly slid the piece of glass out form up his sleeve. John's eyes flickered from his face to the light reflecting off of the smooth, deadly surface.

"Can we go mushroom hunting?"

-


	24. Chapter 24

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

I'm sorry for any mistakes you may find. I know that they're there, so no need to point them out. The most I can do is apologize. This has not been beta read but I really wanted to get the chapter out so I'd thought I'd give it to you guys anyway.

This is for all you anonymous reviews out there. I do love you. I really do. I just don't want to write replies to you in my fic. I'm sorry, and I know that's what most people do, but if you hadn't noticed after twenty-three chapters, I'm not one of them. So if you think I hate you, I don't. I want to reply to _all_ of you. So, if the reply is what you're looking for, just log it, yeah? Thanks, and I hope that didn't sound as mean as I think it did. No hard feelings! Just thought I should say something!

Blood Chronicles

-

Something flickered within the depths of Remus' gold polluted eyes. John opened his mouth, but his words quickly turned into a gasp of pain when the sharp tip of the glass dagger dug into his shoulder and tore effortlessly down his arm.

The homemade blade cut cloth, skin, and in one place bone alike. The glass ripped out of his skin when it reached the point where wrist met hand. He felt the remaining strength he had leave his body as quickly as the vibrant blood rapidly pouring form the wound spanning from shoulder to wrist did.

His knees hit the ground and he gasped again. John had barely gotten a lung full when it was forced out of him again when a knee caught him strongly in the stomach.

John doubled over at the waist, mouth violently coughing up blood to splatter the already soiled concrete floor. His hands clawed uselessly at the floor. Remus' hand fisted in his hair and forced his head back until their eyes met.

He had to resist the urge greatly to shudder at the intensity and gleam of murder that filled the glinting, golden orbs. The murderous intensity that filled those glinting golden orbs that were so unlike the eyes that he remembered and loved so dearly.

John was on his hands and knees in the middle of a room with a boy that was his son. Above that, he was completely defenseless. The iron grip that slowly, almost seductively, transferred itself from his hair to the back of his neck held his neck outstretched past to the point of uncomfortable and exposed him much too vulnerable for his liking. Mastering all of the strength in his body, John struggled to rise, but quickly found that the strength of his son outmatched his own.

"You don't know how long I've waited for this...How I imagined it would be," Remus' cruel voice whispered, warm breath tickling his ear. "I hate you. Fucking _hate_ you."

John felt the sharp, cool, and deadly all at once edge of the glass graze lazily across the front of his neck. The light, mockingly gentle touch of hit against his skin contrasted against the hand at the back of his neck that held none too kindly.

"Want to slit your throat and then watch you die slowly and painfully."

The glass swept over his neck again, but bot quite hard enough to break the skin yet.

Yet.

"Remus," John finally choked out after he'd regained his voice. There was the slightest edge of warning to it, lurking just beneath the surface.

"Shut up," his son hissed and the makeshift blade dug into the flesh of his throat until a small cut emerged. Blood beaded over the top and slowly slid down his pale throat.

Years of playing Quidditch on a professional level had tuned John Lupin's reflexes and muscles well. His hands struggled out from their hold between his own back and Remus' front and latched themselves around Remus' wrist before he had time to leave another mark or move his hand away.

Remus growled as John tried to get the glass away from him and clenched his grip even tighter around it. The blood painted the blade and dripped sickeningly to the floor. Remus' hearing would hear every single individual sound as each drop made contact with the floor. A wet sound that make him sick and hungry all at once.

John managed to pull it slowly away from his throat and thrust it deeper into Remus' hand. Remus dropped it with a mute scream and John grabbed onto his now weaponless arm firmly. Behind him, Remus kicked and pulled backwards. John pulled him forward as hard as he could and felt the full of Remus' weight momentarily graze his back before he landed on the floor in front of him.

John didn't waste any time subduing him in place, but Remus was quick and scrambled to his feet. The blood slid down Remus wrist and John's arm.

"What are you doing?" John demanded, position ready for another attack, whether that attack be verbal or physical.

"What do you _think_ I'm doing? I thought I'd made that much obvious," Remus panted.

"Why are you trying to hurt me? Remus, I'm your-"

"No, you're not. Don't even say it. It's not true; it's a goddamn lie."

John could only stare at him for a moment. "Not true," he struggled to say, the remainder of his energy leaving him. "How can it not be true? It doesn't matter what you try to pretend. I'm still your-"

"_No_._ Don't_," Remus growled, teeth bared and fisting his hair. "How can you be when I don't even _know you_? Hell, you don't even _know me_."

"Of course I know you-"

"But do you really? You can say you do, but do you really know me?"

John muled that over and then shook his head and scolded himself. He didn't need to think if he _knew_ his own son.

"How can I not know you? You're my son. I've known you since you were born-" He was cut off by a short, bitter laugh.

"Oh, so that's what you think, huh? Well, what about when I was _re_born? Didn't know me then, did you?"

"Remus, stop this nonsense. You're my son and I love you...That's all that matters."

"Loved me _then_. You don't love me know."

"Don't act like you know what I think," John snapped..

"You're right, I shouldn't do that...And you know why?" Remus asked with mock innocence. "WE;;, I'll tell you why. It's because I don't even _fucking know you. How can a man I don't even know be my father? How can a man that doesn't even know me be my father? How can you be my fucking father when you didn't even raise me?"_

"Stop, please. Remus, calm down," John tried to sooth his yelling with a gentle voice. "I do love you-"

"_Well, I don't love you. I hate you. You're not my father so stop pretending to be. Fenrir Greyback is my father. He's done more for me in one full moon than you could in a million lifetimes. Fenrir Greyback is my fucking father."_

Words failed John Lupin and left him staring blankly at a boy who, once upon a time, called him Daddy. A thick, obliterating smog filled his mind.

"Fenrir Greyback is _not_-" John began quietly, a cold and soft fury at the edge of his voice.

"_He is_. He's my Dad, _John_-"

"Don't you dare-"

"What're you going to do about it, huh?" Remus yelled, voice and anger alike still rising to peak.

"Punish me? Don't think so, and do you know why that is? It's because you're _not my father_."

Words died again on the tip of John's tongue. Remus had a poetic way with words that simply left him speechless.

"I..." John trailed off.

"You what?" The werewolf spat, eyes guarded and challenging all at once.

For a moment, all John could do was to stare dumbly at what was left of a little boy long since gone. Almost as if he was trying to memorize ever plane of his body, every little detail down to the smallest freckle.

"Fine...Fine." He managed to sound frustrated, sad, and tired all in one breath.

John turned his back fully on Remus, knowing that Remus would be quick enough to grab the glass and ram it into his back far before he even reached the door. With his hand on the door knob, he waited, completely turned, forehead pressed against the door. John looked over his shoulder after giving Remus plenty of time.

"No matter what you say. What you think."

John's voice was quiet, almost too quiet to hear and sounded thirty years past his time.

"You'll always be my son, Remus Lupin. And I shall always be your father. The same father that has always loved you dearly and more than life itself. The some one who still does."

He took a shuddering breath.

"I just wanted to make sure that you knew that. I love you, Remus. Goodbye."

Remus remained perfectly still and silent until the door closed with a soft click behind the one man who'd loved him and he'd turned away. He dropped the blade to the floor with shaking and unsteady hands that had earlier intended murder.

And then the mask fell and he crumpled to the floor with a whimper that was sad and hurt. He huddled into himself and whispered over and over the words that Greyback had whispered into his ears.

It was getting harder and harder to believe them each time.

"He hates me, just lying to me...He doesn't love me. He's not my father. I hate him. Greyback is my father. I am his son. Fenrir Greyback is my father. Not John Lupin-"

It was getting harder and harder to believe those long since practiced words each time.

"Fenrir Greyback is my father..."

And it was still getting harder and harder to believe them.

-


	25. Chapter 25

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

I'm sorry for any mistakes you may find. I know that they're there, so no need to point them out. The most I can do is apologize. This has not been beta read but I really wanted to get the chapter out so I'd thought I'd give it to you guys anyway.

This is for all you anonymous reviews out there. I do love you. I really do. I just don't want to write replies to you in my fic. I'm sorry, and I know that's what most people do, but if you hadn't noticed after twenty-three chapters, I'm not one of them. So if you think I hate you, I don't. I want to reply to _all_ of you. So, if the reply is what you're looking for, just log it, yeah? Thanks, and I hope that didn't sound as mean as I think it did. No hard feelings! Just thought I should say something!

Blood Chronicles

-

"John," Dumbledore's concerned flooded eyes focused on the shaken man that was twenty shades paler than he had been upon entering the room.

The younger man brushed off the comforting hand gently gripping his shoulder. He took a gulping lungful of air and then exhaled slowly. He counted to ten in three different languages. John repeated this procedure nine times. Albus Dumbledore was silent and waited patiently.

"Not now, Albus. I just..." John broke off, eyes fixed on something distant. Blank and unseeing as his mind ran the film reel of the conversation he'd had with Remus over and over again.

The repeated but gentle shake of his shoulder pulled him out of his recollections.

"John? Are you alright?"

"What? Oh, yeah. Fine," he muttered, distracted. "I'd just..." His eyes sought out those of his old headmaster and pleaded.

"Like to be alone?"

"John nodded.

"You know where I am if need be."

John nodded. Dumbledore inclined his head in a silent dismissal.

John nodded.

"John?"

His back turned to Dumbledore, John halted but did not turn about to face him.

"Yes, sir?" He asked dully, quietly.

"What do you say? Do you really think it fair to let him suffer through a society that he could never dream of being a part of again?"

John didn't answer for a very long time. Instead, his mind was focused on days long since past and a boy forever lost to the world with grass stained blue jeans, a lopsided smile, and a talent for catching lightening bugs one handed without squishing them.

_Daddy_

Not my father

_I love you, Daddy_

I hate you

_Up, Daddy_

I hate you

_Love you_

Hate you

Without turning, John nodded and then left without another word. Once he rounded the corner he swept at the tears freely running down his face.

"I love you and goodbye, Remus, my son."

-

Sirius sighed, two plastic bowls and a half full box of Cheerios balanced on his hip, and opened the white door with his free hand. He smiled slightly when he saw Remus waiting for him with an eager expression in place as he waited on the other side of the door. His mind raced back to the conversation he'd had with Albus Dumbledore the day before and remembered that he had a purpose for visiting Remus.

Almost at once, he felt the small smile vanish from his face. He was on a mission. His hands tightened around the things that he carried. Sirius only hoped that he wouldn't fail it.

"Hi," Sirius said, relieved that his voice sounded normal.

"'Lo."

"Brought you some more Cheerios," he said with a lack of anything else to say and held out the mentioned cereal box.

Remus licked his lips and eagerly took what was offered to him. The golden Os spilled into the green plastic bowl and he ate them with his fingers one at a time. Sirius sat down with his own bowl and poured himself a bowl. He ate the food with his fingers and watched Remus as he did so. He couldn't get over how the other boy could make eating with his hands so elegant. So graceful. _Too_ fucking graceful.

"So...Hows been stuff?" Remus asked after his stomach was satisfied for the moment.

All of their conversations always started like this and they were all capable of lasting a few hours. At least. After fifteen minutes had passed, the grim Animagus was was already lost in a world where nothing mattered and it was just him and Remus. He lost track of time after those fifteen minutes.

An unaccountable amount of time flew by until a lull finally broke their easy banter. The short break brought reality crashing painfully back to Sirius. His eyes traveled away from Remus while he spoke. He found that it was hard to look at him and talk to him at the same time all of a sudden.

"Graduation was yesterday," he said quietly, hoping that he sounded off handed.

"So did you graduate?" Remus smirked.

Sirius chuckled slightly in spite of himself. "Nope. Gotta start all over." He looked up seriously at Remus. "McGonagall had a heart attack."

The werewolf laughed, remembering all of the stories he'd heard about the tight lipped Transfiguration teacher.

"So have you got a place to stay?" Remus licked his lips, trying not to sound expecting. "A flat of your own?"

He hesitated. "Yeah."

"Cool."

There was a pause.

"Listen, Remus," Sirius sighed, deciding a blunt approach would be best. "Tyler has a place in London-"

"Wait..._Tyler_. Why are you talking about _him_?" There was a shape edge in his voice.

"It's small, but it's big enough for two-"

"That's...Nice, but I really don't care-"

"I'm giving you a choice," Sirius cut him off quickly. "You have options, Remus. An opportunity-"

"What kind of options are-"

"Don't interrupt me again. Yes, options." Sirius took a deep breath. "First off, you can go stay with Tyler and get registered. _Or_," he pushed on loudly, for Remus had opened him mouth with a look of protest on his face.

"Or...Or they'll turn you over the the Ministry. To...To take..."

It had to be the hardest thing he'd ever had to say.

"It's your choice. No one's gonna force you into either."

Remus was quiet for a moment.

"Those are my only options? What about letting me go?"

Sirius bit his lip and shook his head slowly. "Not an option."

"This Ministry."

Remus didn't even have to think about it. Didn't hesitate.

"Remus, don't. There are ways...You don't have to-"

"I thought you said no one was going to force me to do anything," Remus snapped. "I didn't know that that didn't apply to you."

Sirius fell silent.

"You're sure?" He asked, hating the way his voice choked on tears that he was struggling to hold back.

"Sure."

"What about some time to think-"

"No. Time is not going to change my mind."

"Then what_ will_ change you're mind?"

_You_

"Nothing."

"Rem-"

_You, Sirius._

"Nothing."

Sirius just stared at him for a moment. The childish desire to jump up and scream and throw things and pound his fists on the floor and rip at his hair and hold his breath until he got what he wanted threatened to overpower him. For a second, he almost did just that.

His mouth opened. It wouldn't work. He closed it.

It opened again. And once again it failed to function. Again, he closed it.

Sirius stood, knowing he had to leave before he resorted to childish ways to get what he wanted and left quickly without looking back.

Remus stared at he door until the next morning.

-

"Dumbledore," Sirius spoke into the fireplace.

Tears rode the surface of his eyes and made them over bright.

"Ah, Sirius," the headmaster of Hogwarts greeted respectively. "The verdict, if you'd please?"

"Ministry."

Sirius thought about lying and saying Tyler's place as it left his mouth.

He left without hearing what Dumbledore had to say.

-


	26. Chapter 26

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

I'm sorry for any mistakes you may find. I know that they're there, so no need to point them out. The most I can do is apologize. This has not been beta read but I really wanted to get the chapter out so I'd thought I'd give it to you guys anyway.

Ah, it almost feels like I can't write at the moment...Sorry for the awfulness that is the constant switching of the tense of this chapter, but every time I went to change it it just came out wrong. Sigh.

Blood Chronicles

-

Sorry.

Was what he wanted to say, but can't.

Goodbye.

Was what he needed to say, but can't.

Sirius tried to make his tongue cooperate and say the former, but it wouldn't. Or maybe it just can't. Instead his voice caught in the back of his throat and came out choked.

"God _damn_ you, Remus."

It is the first time in Sirius' memory that Remus offered no bitting response. Not even the slightest shift in body language to acknowledge that he's heard what's being spoken to him. Sirius thinks that maybe it's just his thoughts, chasing one another around in his head. He repeated himself, just to make sure.

"I heard you the first time."

It is also the first time in memory that Sirius has ever heard Remus speak so softly. No playful banter undertone or snapping bite beneath the surface.

Quite frankly, it scared him.

"God _damn_." His hands fisted in this hair and tugged lightly, repeatedly. "Why couldn't you just...Just have gone and lived with Tyler? I'm not asking anything _impossible_."

"But that's just it. You are asking something impossible."

"Stop being all melodramatic."

"I'm not. It's true. I'd rip him limb from limb before the first week was up. The first day even. I can't live like a house dog. A pet." His nose wrinkles back in disgust. "I don't want to go into some fucking rehab-"

"It's not-"

"It is. I'm done talking. I've made my choice, and I'm not changing it. No matter what you say."

"I..." Sirius trailed off, finding nothing more to say.

Nothing more to say because he had already said it all. Except for what he has wanted to say.

"Sorry."

"What're you sorry for? I'm the one that's got a bullet with my name on it."

"Everything. I'm sorry for everything."

Remus shrugged, tired and leaned against the wall opposite Sirius, arms crossed.

"S'not your fault."

"Yeah it is. If I hadn't been stupid enough to follow you back in the first place."

"If we're going back that far then it'd be fair to say that it's my fault for taking from you in the first place."

Sirius grinned sheepishly. "Now, if we're going _that_ far back then we can blame it all on my uncle."

"Your uncle

"If he hadn't gotten so rich and hadn't given me such a nice chunk of the wealth..."

He felt stupid. Sirius felt even stupider when Remus stares back at him with a blank expression.

He stared. And stared.

And blinked. And blinked again.

Sirius found himself feeling very uncomfortable when Remus started to laugh and then suddenly stopped to draw a deep, shuddering breath. His voice recovered and Sirius learned that such a simple, two syllable word is not as easy as it seems to say.

"Goodbye."

It came out choked and is hard to distinguish exactly what it is at first. He hated himself immediately afterward when one silent tear dripped from the end of Remus' jaw line. It looked so shockingly out of place. Sirius realized that he has never seen Remus cry before and realized what a day for many firsts that this was turning out to be,

It is also the first time that they had cried together, clinging to one another in their desperation in the face of reality.

Remus was terrified. More terrified than he has ever been before in his entire life. More terrified than when he was first bitten. He had been too young to fully comprehend the full measure of things then. More terrified than he was when confronting with Greyback, although he would never let it show. Even more so since he'd be captured and facing the uncertain.

No longer was his fate uncertain. It was laid out in front of him. All viable with no tricks awaiting him unsuspectingly.

The truth of certainty frightened him.

It is the first time that he acknowledges the fact that he is afraid of death. Flirting with it as he has, he had no reason to fear it. But now that it snapped in his face and showed no escape Remus was hysterical.

He was so afraid that he was almost considering changing his mind. Almost thought about living with Tyler the pet werewolf. Almost thought about learning to become a _tame _werewolf just so that he can _live._ No matter how many newspaper beatings it may take.

He _almost_ starts to consider it as it is lurking in the back of his mind, out of sight.

But as they say. Out of sight, out of mind.

_Almost_ is never enough for Remus.

Remus felt bad as he cried like a five-year-old. His eyes regarded the growing wet patch on Sirius' shoulder as he felt his own shoulder dampen with tears.

It was an odd feeling. One that he had exposed to twice in this entire life. That feeling of responsibility and that feeling of playing the protector. Once on the morning after he'd bitten Aaron and then when Sirius had been angry at him for fighting with James.

This marked the third time.

He was ashamed that the number was so low as to still be single digits.

Remus struggled to get his uneven breathing and freely falling, salty tears under control. When he had managed that after some difficultly, he wrapped his arms in an awkward, comforting embrace around Sirius' shoulders. Sirius comes willingly, head resting on Remus' shoulder and nose nuzzling into his neck in a subconscious gesture of Padfoot.

As a silence is draped heavily and becomes thick and suffocating, Remus wished desperately for the rain. For the rain to come pouring form the sky. To pound on the roof and distract him from the silence. To soothe him.

"Don't cry. Please don't cry," Remus repeated awkwardly to Sirius the same way he had Aaron.

Sirius laughed weekly and murmured against Remus' neck. "I should be the one offering the words of comfort, not the other way around."

Remus shrugged. "I'm the one leaving you here, am I not?"

"I-"

"I love you," Remus whispers. "I...I think I really do. I've never felt this way before."

He glanced away shyly, to Sirius, the motion looks out of place.

"I love you," Remus repeats more confidently, to reassure the both of them. "Don't think I'm weird or anything."

Sirius half grinned through the tears and he swipes at his face angrily.

"Not weird," he murmurs. "Not weird at all. I think that I might just very well love you back."

He sealed his words with a kiss.

A gentle kiss that almost passed as child like innocence of a first, uncertain kiss. There was nothing hidden and sexual about it.

It was a goodbye kiss.

-


	27. Chapter 27

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

I'm sorry for any mistakes you may find. I know that they're there, so no need to point them out. The most I can do is apologize. This has not been beta read but I really wanted to get the chapter out so I'd thought I'd give it to you guys anyway.

Blood Chronicles

-

"What time are they coming, again?" Sirius asked. Not because he had not already known, but because it was merely something that give him an excuse to talk.

He already knew what the answer will be out of his old Headmaster's mouth.

Four o' clock. On the spot. Not a minute before. Not a minute after.

"Four o' clock."

"And...What time is it now, sir?" He asked, but as before, to have something to do. To say, to break the silence with.

He already knew the time. He had been counting the seconds down in his head since the last time he had asked Dumbledore.

It will be three forty-eight, prompt.

Dumbledore withdrew the gold and silver pocket watch from the folds of his robes and flicked it open. He carefully observed the seven ticking hands and odd symbols that, apparently, only he can read. He snapped it shut and spoke as he replaced it.

"Three forty-eight."

Sirius gulped. The mental second had clicking away in his own head.

_Three forty-nine,_ he thinks with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. _Only eleven more minutes._

The next eight minutes pass slowly for Sirius. Sirius knew the time to be three fifty-six.

He asked anyway.

"Three fifty-six, Mr. Black."

Two minutes pass with agonizing slowness.

Sirius knew it to be three fifty-eight. He asked anyway.

The watch flicked open. Flicked closed again.

An answer. "Three fifty-eight."

Four minutes tick by unnoticed by any normal human being. Sirius knew the exact passing of each minute, down to the very last second. He knew it to be four o two, prompt.

He is confused. The Ministry is _never_ late with _any_ set appointment.

_Maybe this has all been one horrible misunderstanding._

"Sir?"

Flick open. Flick closed. Dumbledore didn't even bother putting it away again.

"Three o' two." The older man's fingers clench slightly around the pocket watch.

At promptly four o' nine, the member from the Werewolf Capture Unit arrived. All calm faced with iron chains slung over his shoulder.

Sirius felt as the color drains from his face. He was sure that if Padfoot had been unleashed, hackles would be raised and sharp teeth and claws would be buried into this terrible man.

"So," he grunted, shifting the heavy chains and cuffs, making his muscles visible under the black and straining shirt. "I hear there's a rabid mutt around here that needs to be put down."

It took all of Sirius' self control to restrain himself from ripping the Werewolf Capture Unit officer limb from limb. Dumbledore placed a slender fingered hand on Sirius shoulder to reinforce that restraint. The old headmaster's eyes were missing their usual mirth and he tightened his grip momentarily on Sirius' shoulder in warning before taking it away.

"If you'd kindly step this way."

Dumbledore started down the corridor with the Ministry sent officer following behind him. The soles of his leather boots clicked smartly together.

Sirius found his feet following as well on their own accord. He really wished that they wouldn't.

Not one of them spoke a word until they reached Remus' door. Sirius' stomach fell as the leader of the Order took the protective wards down that guarded the room where Remus was held.

The man in the black shirt muttered under his breath, pushed past Dumbledore, and turned the door knob.

It took all of Sirius' will to stop himself from leaping.

The officer stepped inside and Sirius couldn't help but smile weekly at Remus' welcoming growl. Dumbledore stood back with pursed lips and pensive eyes.

The grim Animagus peered around the door frame when the volume in the room increased ten fold. Yelling, cursing, and howling joined in the verbal spar.

He felt sick.

"_Let go of me! Leave me the fuck alone!"_ Remus yelled, trying to wrench his wrist away with bared teeth.

"Hold still," the officer hissed and clamped a thick cuff tightly around his wrist.

Remus snarled and struggled to bring a gap between the two of them. His elbow collided sharply with the officer's face. He managed to break away, chains dragging from his right hand. He set to prying them off as he made quickly for the door.

He was shoved abruptly, face first into the wall. Both of his hands subdued behind his back.

They screamed and thrashed wildly until both of his wrists were secure. Remus spat in the officer's face and spoke with words that were backed more with wolf than with human spite. His wrists were bonded tightly in front of him, so that his hands would be visible at all times.

Remus' fingers twitched and when the man stepped back, he threw his arms up and over his head so that he held the chains against the Werewolf Capture Unit officer's throat.

The officer gagged and kicked backwards like a blind, panic stricken mule. He missed and Remus kneed him in the lower back, forcing him to the ground. Remus freed his hands and darted for the door. He nearly tripped when the officer grabbed his ankle with two strong hands.

The werewolf snarled, didn't even bother kicking back, least he get his other leg caught as well, curled around and bit the offending hand so hard that the skin broke and the copper tang of blood flooded his tongue. The man yelled and let go, nursed his bloody hand. Remus took his chance to lunge out of the door.

He nearly collided with Sirius. He skidded upright and down the corridor as Dumbledore's wand focused on him. Remus bent low and darted quickly around the corner before the wizard's spell had a chance to strike him. It grazed the corner where wall met wall to form a point and sent plaster flying.

Sirius glanced around the corner, hoping that he would not see Remus. The corridor was empty. He sighed and shook his head at Dumbledore.

Blue eyes flashed and he jabbed his wand sharply at the ceiling with flowing Latin on the tip of his tongue. Flashing green lights and screaming sirens filled the hallway. Three seconds after the alarms went off, five people appeared in front of Dumbledore. All had their wands at the ready and shifty eyes.

"Remus Lupin has escaped. He must be found. Any means you need to bring him back here, use."

A few disappeared as quickly as they'd come, no doubt to search the other floors of the enormous, deserted hotel that they called headquarters. The others sprinted down the corridor, splitting up to the left and right.

"Sir?" Sirius asked quietly.

"That meant you too, Sirius."

He raised his wand hand, obviously getting ready to disappear himself to join the search party. Dumbledore failed to do so at the last second.

"Sirius?"

"Sir?"

Dumbledore inhaled a slow breath. "I know that you're attached to him, but..."

"I'll do all that I can to bring him back, if that's what you were worried about."

"That's all that I could ask of you."

He vanished without any other words of parting.

-


	28. Chapter 28

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

I'm sorry for any mistakes you may find. I know that they're there, so no need to point them out. The most I can do is apologize. This has not been beta read but I really wanted to get the chapter out so I'd thought I'd give it to you guys anyway.

Blood Chronicles

-

Remus sped down unfamiliar hall after unfamiliar hall, heart beating wildly in his ears and breathing through his mouth. He skidded around corner after corner and down staircase after staircase. He heard fast footfalls behind him and ducked into an empty room and waited until their echoes faded from the hall beyond the door.

Remus' fists clenched and unclenched before he crept out of the door and continued on his uncharted dash for freedom.

Time seemed to drag by until eons had passed in only a matter of an hour. He rounded another corner, fear and panic overwhelming his senses and blocking out rational thought, and came to a long, straight corridor. Plain doors much like his own lined it on both sides. At the end lay a pair of tell tale double doors. Sunlight streamed through the grimy glass in the topmost plane.

Adrenaline pumped through his body as he tore toward the doors. Towards the outside world. Towards freedom. Towards_ home._

It glory of it all was only nine plain white doors away.

Six doors away.

Four doors.

One.

He was so close that he could reach out and touch the stainless steel handles.

His sweaty hands were on the handles as he continued to run, bracing himself to escape the wretched building as fast as he could.

Smoke was howling for the freedom he so hungrily needed.

The door to his left swung outward loudly. Remus' muscles tensed and he stopped mid stride to avoid being hit in the face.

Sirius stepped out of the room, eyes hard and set, wand raised.

Remus felt his insides freeze and then shatter.

A dead silence followed. The siren faded into into nothing a while ago but the flashing green light remained, bathing everything with a flickering, sickish green glow. Neither moved. Neither even thought of their next move.

Sirius' breathing was even, while Remus' was coming out in soft, panting huffs.

"You knew I was going to come here," Remus said at length, it was shaped as a statement.

"I like to think that I know you pretty well by now."

Remus gritted his teeth together, cursing himself for going against everything that was _him_ and allowing himself to get close to someone.

"I suggest you move."

Sirius was silent. Remus waited. A minute passed and Remus sighed.

"Goddammit, Sirius-"

"If you want me to move then why don't you make me?" His tone of voice wasn't cocky nor was it challenging. It was pure childlike curiosity.

"I...Hell, Sirius...I could never...never hurt you."

Sirius did not comment, nor did his wand hand weaver. Remus waited.

All at once, Remus lowered his head so that his eyes locked with the floor and held out his cuffed hands to Sirius. Clear as day giving himself up being unable to run anymore nor fight off the raven haired teen. He could fight Sirius...Make him move...But he would not.

He felt Sirius' grip tighten around the chain that held his hands together. Remus closed his eyes tightly and a single tear seeped out of the corner.

_So close. I was so close. So so so so close. I was almost there._

Something clicked, a sound that was sharp and crisp. Remus flinched.

The shackles went slack. They loosened their tight hold upon him. They slipped from his hands and wrists and coiled at his feet like some dormant steel snake.

Remus' golden eyes widened as they first swept over the shackles at his feet and then to the red and abused skin that they had bound.

His head snapped up, eyes still wide in his pale face.

His shocked expression was magnified at the sight of the double doors thrown wide open before him. No longer did any obstacle stand between him and going home. Sirius stood beside them, with a small smile in place and no wand in sight.

"How?" Remus asked faintly.

Sirius shrugged.

"If you push on 'em hard enough, they open. Who knew?"

"_No_. I mean..." He trailed off and Sirius' eyes sought out his. Silver met gold. "Sirius, I-"

"Go, you don't have that much time."

"I...Thank you." For the first time in his life, Remus found himself left speechless.

Sirius smiled cockily. "Don't mention it. Now _get_."

Remus grinned back, started for the door, and paused. He eyed Sirius wearily, seizing him up, and then threw his arms around his neck.

The embrace broke and he bolted out of the doors with a last smile and another quiet thank you into Sirius' ear.

Sirius reported back to Dumbledore ten minutes later. He told the old headmaster that the whole building had been searched and that Remus Lupin was nowhere to be found on the grounds of the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix.

-

It only took Remus a grand total of twenty minutes to realize that he was in London, capital of England. When he did, he cursed his luck.

He hadn't counted on being this far away from home. Remus had only been to London once before, and while it was good for business, it was much too far to be bothered with often. Even if he had only been in the city once before, its scent and the scent of its people, was one that couldn't be mistaken for anything else.

The scent of damp newspaper, tram exhaust, and the constant rushing, hung low like fog in the air. It was nearly suffocating.

His mind was racing, racing too fast for him to consider exactly where he was running.

_Run run run. Get away from here. Far far far away. Faster faster._

Always faster.

Remus was relived that London was as busy as it was, this way no one had any _time_ to pay attention to him. He ran in a straight line, through yards and streets alike until the tall buildings, traffic, and close packed apartments became few and far between.

Kept on running until no further remains of the dirty city were visible to his eye.

-


	29. Chapter 29

Rating of R

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

Blood Chronicles

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards"  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

I'm sorry for any mistakes you may find. I know that they're there, so no need to point them out. The most I can do is apologize. This has not been beta read but I really wanted to get the chapter out so I'd thought I'd give it to you guys anyway.

Blood Chronicles

-

Three days.

It took Remus a total of an entire three days until the familiar lights of Hogsmead blazed in the distance ahead of him. More out of habit than anything, golden eyes flew to the sky. The sun was due to set in an hour or so, give or take. He could feel it more in his blood and the marrow of his bones than anything.

Tonight would be the full moon.

Remus snorted and walked along the edge of Hogsmead, to avoid any unwanted attention, toward the forest that lay sprawled threateningly beyond it.

_What a great welcome home present. A full moon and me with no plans. What a waste, _Remus thought and found that his path had been abused in his absence.

It was now over grown and almost impossible to find. His feet followed it the best they could from memory.

"Forty minutes," he murmured as the sky faded to another shade of storm cloud gray.

Remus pushed the door open and was relived to find that the dimly lit room behind it was void of any lurking shadows. With a tired, relived sigh, he started toward the tunnel that would eventually lead him to his own sleeping quarters. And what promised to be an extremely short time to rest.

As he started down, someone else went bolting up and collided headfirst into him.

After spending a near month as a prisoner of the Order of the Phoenix, not enjoying it one bit, being drugged more than have of the time, regularly refused food, interrogated by force, having his emotions toyed with, _and_ on top of all that his moon frayed nerves, he was not happy in the slightest.

"What the fuck," he snarled, lifted the trembling form that had ran into him by the back of the neck. "Why don't you try and watch where the fuck you're going, or next time, I'll bash your goddamn head in."

Remus dropped the offender roughly and stormed down the sloping tunnel, heels digging in in order to avoid sliding.

"S-Smoke?" An uncertain voice whispered from the main ground. Remus froze and whirled around sharply. He'd know that voice, he'd know if from the many times it had inquired if he were home yet.

"Aaron?" It was a relief, a familiar name on the tip of his tongue. "Aaron, is that you?"

He took a step forward. With something between a yelp and a yell, the small boy threw himself at Remus, arms hugging him tight around the waist as if he were planning on never letting go.

"Is that really you, Smoke?" Aaron asked, head slowly upturning to face Remus. His voice sounded close to breaking with unshed tears.

Remus smiled wearily and ran his fingers through the dirty blond locks. It was a gesture that spoke more than any words ever could.

"It's really you! You're back! Where have you been? Greyback said you were dead. But you're not, you're right here, you're not a ghost are you-"

Remus silenced him by clapping a hand over his mouth and dragging him further down the tunnel and into deeper shadows where the oil lamps couldn't quite reach to banish the dark shadows and the cold.

"Shut up," Remus hissed, hand still clamped tightly over Aaron's mouth. The acid was sucked out of his harsh reprimand when he continued to stroke Aaron's hair to assure him that he was not angry.

"I don't want them to hear."

"Why not? They'll be so happy that you're back-"

"Some less than others," he laughed humorlessly. "I don't want any attention right now. I'd rather just relax while I can."

Aaron's eyes went wide. "Are you okay? What happened? Where have you been-"

"Just the question that I was going to ask," a growling voice said from behind them.

Both werewolves whirled around only to come face to face with a leering Fenrir Greyback.

"Where _have _you been, Remus?"

Greyback's sharp teeth clicked smartly together on his name. Remus cursed his luck and slowly and discreetly pushed Aaron behind him. The alpha's eyes narrowed to slits and his nostrils flared, scenting him. The twin black irises widened and then narrowed again, this time more slowly. This time more deadly.

Greyback's nose scrunched in disgust and his lips raised. Remus paled. He knew exactly what Greyback was smelling on him that didn't please him one bit.

Tyler.

_Tame_ werewolf.

_Not good, oh shit, not good._

It was something that the two of them had developed and perfected over the years. Silent communication. Remus chewed on the end of his left ring finger and rested his weight easily on his right foot. He felt more than heard Aaron make a swift departure.

"So," Greyback growled as he threw an arm around Remus' shoulders and, with a vice like grip, pulled him down the corridor. "Just where _have _you been?"

Remus shrugged, wincing as Greyback buried his hand beneath his shirt and ground his dirty fingernails against his neck and shoulder. He suppressed a quiet gasp of pain as the skin sliced and the blood pooled and stained his sweat soaked shirt.

"More specifically, where have you been with a tame werewolf?"

"You wouldn't give a fuck if I told you that I've been held captive by the bloody Order of the Phoenix for a month while they've tortured answers outta me." Remus caught himself a half second too late. He knew that Greyback had caught his mistake as well when he was rammed roughly into the wall and a cruel hand closed over his throat.

"_What_ did you _tell_ them?"

"_Nothing_," Remus gasped, his hands clawing at Greyback's relenting hands. The fingernails came away with a faint coating of red blood. Remus stared at it until he was brought back to reality when Greyback smacked him across the face and slammed him painfully hard into the wall again. "_Nothing, I didn't tell them anything-"_

"Liar! Don't you dare lie to me! What the fuck did you tell them?!" Greyback snarled, spinning around and slamming Remus into the wall opposite them. Remus grunted in pain as he felt a tell tale crack in his rib cage. He slumped forward into Greyback, panting heavily and trying to regain his lost breath.

"Don't," Remus hissed as his thumbs found the eye sockets of his attacker and applied forceful pressure. Greyback roared in panic and whipped his head away. Part of his right eye lid pealed off and Remus flicked it off the end of his finger tip.

"Don't," Remus growled, even more dangerously as Greyback thrashed in pain and howled in agony, although he was too stubborn to relinquish his firm grip. "Call me a liar."

Remus shoved hard and Greyback stumbled away, wiping the blood that was rapidly flooding down his face away with the back of his dirty hand. His right eye looked strangely large and mad as he blinded blood out of it. Greyback lunged forward, Remus balled both of his fists and hit him hard in the stomach as Greyback's long, dirt encrusted nails dug bloody lines along his collar bone.

Remus screamed as they sank deeply into his skin and stuck there.

"I'll call you a liar all I want, you filthy little traitor," Greyback said softly as Remus whimpered against the wall. He pulled his fingers out of Remus pale, blood drenched skin and ran the middle and index across Remus' face. "Here's your war paint, Remus, we can't have you forgetting where your loyalties lie."

Remus snarled and kicked Greyback's legs out from under him so that he had to stumble backwards quickly to regain his balance.

There were no more words after that. Their sparring match was reduced to a fight. A bloody fight that neither was willing to give up and neither was willing to lose.

It was the most primitive of battles. All teeth and nails more like claws and blood. Much too much blood. A battle to put an end to the war.

-


	30. Chapter 30

Rating of R.

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards."  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

Blood Chronicles.

-

Twenty minutes into the brawl and both werewolves froze.

Blood, dirt, and spittle alike slicked their bodies. They panted heavily through bloodied mouths. Remus' arm was at an odd angle and a black eye was blossoming over his left eye socket. Greyback had a long, dirty gash down the entire length of his leg and his neck was sporting a nasty wound.

Both sets of eyes flew to the ceiling and the full moon they knew lie beyond it.

The _rising _full moon.

The full moon that tugged at their bones, sent their hearts racing to an irregular beat, and their blood boiling like liquid fire.

Remus fell to his keens first. His fingers clutched at the ground. Soil etched itself beneath his fingernails. It had no matter what so ever if he had accepted the wolf or not. The transformation that unfurled him from man to wolf still hurt worse than most mortal pain. He braced himself on his forelegs and shook out the lasting effects of the bone breaking and gripping transformation.

Out of several years more experience, Greyback recovered faster and wasted no time bowling Smoke over. The bigger wolf clamped his jaws tightly around the silver throat. The younger wolf gagged as blood rushed up his throat and slashed his offender across the face.

The alpha male howled and scrambled backwards, paws nursing his torn and bleeding face. His nose had split dreadfully in two.

Smoke climbed to his feet, the floor beneath him already spotted with blood. He forced himself to swallow the blood and half digested food that tried to surge up his throat down. The wolf slightly and Greyback lunged his in moment of weakness.

Greyback's sharp teeth fastened around Smoke's hind leg and pulled him across the ground on his belly. Sharp stones and teeth both bit painfully into him, and Smoke yelped. He kicked violently backwards and caught Greyback in the face, before the wolf had the chance to gnaw his leg in half.

Greyback let go with an outraged howl and Smoke dragged himself away.

Smoke gained his footing gingerly and circled Greyback, limping with narrowed eyes. Greyback circled opposite the other wolf, shaking the blood out of his face. Each was alert for an open spot to attack. Smoke was the first to find it.

He landed atop Greyback and took a brutal hold on the back of his neck. Greyback howled, sidestepped, and attempted to roll his attacker off. Smoke held on and jerked his head sharply to either side. Blood and fur filled his mouth.

It was on his tongue, he could taste it.

Smoke snapped and tore and clawed at the alpha males neck, back, and shoulders. Greyback made exclamations of pain and threw himself against the wall in an attempt to bash his opponent off of his back.

It was on his tongue, he could taste it.

Death. It was so close, almost tangible.

Greyback trembled beneath him.

_Oh, yes. So very close indeed._

Smoke rolled himself off of Greyback's back and watched the other wolf stumble and fall. He struggled, panting, to stand again. Smoke watched with emotionless eyes.

_I love you, Greyback. I never wanted it to end like this. I love you so much, but you made me do it. You made me._

It did not matter how much he struggled. Greyback's weakened legs would not support his tired body.

Smoke advanced slowly on the grounded wolf, teeth bared and limping. He was greatly favoring the hind leg that Greyback had used to haul him around like a rag doll. His muscles tensed as he prepared to pounce and seal the older wolf's fate with a snap of his powerful jaws.

Greyback didn't flinch. His eyes held the utmost loathing and challenge. A dare.

_Go on. Kill me. I dare you. Kill me. You wouldn't dare, would you?_

Smoke growled. He didn't like that the other wolf, the other wolf that should be at his mercy, still regarded him as if he were still no match fro the almighty alpha.

The same almighty alpha that was lying at his feet in a pool of his own crimson blood.

The same alpha that was at his mercy.

_His mercy._

At the last moment, Smoke failed to leap. He hesitated.

Smoke shook himself and flipped Greyback over on his back. He firmly, yet not enough to break the skin, took a hold on the older wolf's throat. Greyback didn't respond. Smoke growled and nudged his head up with his nose so that Greyback's throat was bared.

The sign of submission.

Smoke tightened his hold on the black wolf's throat until it was an iron grip. Greyback twitched beneath him and his blood spilled until there was none left to spill.

Smoke pulled back and watched as the light slowly left from Greyback's eyes. He forced himself to watch, it was the last honor and favor that he did owe to the other wolf.

As Greyback slipped farther and farther away, Smoke raised his head and howled mournfully. It was a raspy sound that reflected the abuse of the long war.

When he was done, Smoke lowered his head and licked the split, black nose.

Greyback did not stir. His breath no longer bathed over Smoke's face.

Smoke pulled himself away and licked all of Greyback's wounds before limping away. He limped down the dirt walled corridor and collapsed in his heap of blankets. He drifted off to sleep and for the first time since he was bitten, he did not dream of teeth and blood. For the first time in his life he felt free.

Truly free.

He may have lost many battles, but in the end, it was he that won the war.

-

Sirius knew exactly where Remus would be.

Hogsmead.

He boarded the train with that thought in mind.

-


	31. Chapter 31

Rating of R.

I do not own the characters, JKR does. I simply borrow them.

"...Greyback specializes in children...Bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards."  
-Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 334

What if, when Remus Lupin was bitten, Greyback stole him off into the middle of the night. What if he was never found. What if he never went to Hogwarts and never met three people that could change his life forever. What if he met one of them. Six years too late. This is that what if story.

Blood Chronicles.

-

Even though it hurt and would have been able to wake any other person, Remus, in his exhaustion, managed to sleep through his transformation from wolf to boy. When he awoke, some five hours after the process was complete, it was to a warm body pressed behind him and a sloppily done wrap on his leg.

Remus startled and scrambled to his feet. He regretted his effort at once when he couldn't keep his balance and fall over. He cursed and grabbed at his leg, teeth gritted in pain. It had been a long time since he had last been seriously injured due to a transformation. Remus bit his lip as a new shock wave ran up his leg, transferred to his hip, and continued up his spine.

_Damn, what happened last--_ He thought and abruptly his train of thought broke off as he remember exactly what _had_ happened the other night.

_I...I--_

The something warm and solid that had been pressed up firmly behind him moaned softly.

Remus' eyes and attention flew over to his uninvited companion that was also lying on top of the blood, dirt, and sweat soaked blankets.

"Sirius?" He whispered, disbelief full in his voice.

Sirius grumbled in his sleep, threw one arm up in the air, and then dozed back into an easy slumber.

"Sirius." Remus crawled over to the other boy and poked him cautiously in the shoulder. Sirius' brow furrowed.

"Wake up."

Sirius mumbled something unintelligible and opened his eyes slowly.

"What--" Sirius broke off with a huge yawn and rubbed the heels of his hands into the sockets of his sleep hazed eyes.

"S'that really you?"

"No, it's your bloody grandmother. 'Course it's me," Sirius said and stretched out his long limbs.

"Why are you here? How'd you know where I was?"

The sable haired grinned sheepishly. "I like to think that I know you pretty well by now."

This time, Remus didn't curse himself.

"I—Why are you here?"

Sirius shrugged. "Dunno. I just...Well, you didn't expect me to just let you go _that_ easily, did you?"

The werewolf smiled slightly.

"How sweet of you." His reward was a mock cuff around the head.

"Prat. Is that the thanks I get?"

"Thanks for what?"

Sirius nodded his head toward Remus' leg.

"Oh, that. Hell, lot of good it did me. I _still_ can't stand on it," Remus muttered.

"I tried my best, seriously."

"How can you not do anything seriously when--"

"Shut up," Sirius cut him off. "So old. It's not even funny anymore."

"I tried."

"I know--"

"Smoke?" Aaron's quiet voice interrupted from the doorway. Both boys turned their attention from one another to where Aaron stood, small and pale.

"Morning,. Aaron," Remus said quietly, scooting over to the little boy and wincing.

"Smoke, there's a..." He trailed off and Remus pulled him into his lap. His sentence hung unfinished in the air between them and Remus avoided his eyes. Sirius looked confused.

"What?"

"Nothing, Sirius. Aaron, I'll take care of it just--"

"Didja kill him, Smoke?"

Sirius raised a silent eyebrow and glanced questioningly between the two werewolves.

"I did."

Aaron's eyes widened.

"Not now, Aaron." The little boy nodded, turned to leave, and then turned quickly back to Remus. He opened his mouth, but Remus beat him to it. "You don't need to ask me. Yes, you can go."

Aaron left quickly and silently. Sirius and Remus sat in silence for a moment.

"What was he talking about? Who'd you kill?"

"Greyback," Remus answered softly. Sirius' expression turned pensive.

"Well...If you killed him, then that makes you the new leader or something?" Sirius asked, trying to draw the other onto the brighter side of things.

The thought had slipped Remus' mind.

"I...I...Holy shit, it does. I'm alpha. _I'm_ alpha. I'm _alpha_."

"So does that mean--"

"Sirius," Remus cut him off sharply and turned to face him fully. "_I'm alpha_."

"So I've heard," Sirius answered dryly.

"No, you don't understand. I'm alpha. I can do whatever I want."

"Sounds pretty awesome."

"You could come with me."

"I...Pardon?"

"You could come with me. Come with us."

Sirius gaped at him.

"Are you insane? I can't come with you."

"But you can. I make the rules now."

"Remus--"

"Please."

Sirius didn't answer.

"Please come with me, Sirius. It'll be different this time. I promise. I want you to come. Please."

"I--"

"Please."

"I can't."

Remus sat in stunned silence.

_What do you mean by '_You can't_' don't you understand? I want you to come._

"You...Can't?"

"I can't, Remus."

"But why? Why can't you come? Don't you want to be with me? Isn't that why you're here right now?"

"Rem--"

"Why?"

Sirius sighed, ran a hand through his hair. "Remus, I can't come with you. I have a life here. And responsibilities here."

"You can start another life."

"It doesn't work that way. They _need_ me here."

_I need you_

"They'll get on well enough without you."

Two full minutes of complete silence passed.

"No."

"Sirius--"

"_No_."

"I love you--"

"Dammit, Remus, _no_. Don't you see? I can't. Just like you can't come with me. I can't come with you."

"Okay," Remus finally said grudgingly to the floor and pushed himself away from Sirius. Self hatred was welling up inside of him because of how close he was to crying. "Okay." He forced himself to repeat it.

"Okay," Sirius agreed with relief.

"Leave."

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Leave? Wait. Why?"

"Because if it must be this way, then I might as well start getting used to it."

"Rem--"

"Leave." _Don't go. Change your mind._

Sirius stood up awkwardly to leave. He paused in the doorway and looked back at Remus. Remus' head turned quickly away from his.

Sirius tried hard not to let the tears fall as he walked away. They won the battle.

Remus sobbed for the first time for want of another.

-

The second day after the full moon, Remus moved his new pack.

He moved them far away from Hogsmead and all of the memories that it held.

It was night, the cool summer breeze felt good on his face. Aaron was sound asleep, curled into a ball and sleeping in his lap. Remus ran his fingers gently though his clean hair. His eyes were trained on the sky.

On the stars.

On Sirius.

"I love you, Sirius."

-

Some two hundred miles away, Sirius was on the roof of his flat. Silver eyes were fixed on the exact same sky that golden eyes were seeing so far away.

But they weren't focused on the stars.

They could care less about those little burning pinpricks that were hole in the tapestry of heaven.

The moon held their attention.

"I love you, Remus," he whispered as a soft breeze smelling of honeysuckle brushed his skin.

-

"Goodnight."

-

"Night."

-

The clouds shifted and both the stars and the moon vanished from sight.

-

Fin.


End file.
